Investors gain exposure to Bitcoin "without the need to buy, hold, and store Bitcoin directly, avoiding the complexity of crypto exchanges and wallets" and lose ownership and control over their very own funds, as a result.
In this way, they gained exposure by getting numbers instead of the real thing. They avoided the complexities of custodial wallets and gained the complexities of traditional financial products.
This is essentially moving backward rather than forward.
This is a step backward for those who value privacy and support Satoshi's vision. However, this will not make any sense to market participants, investing in bitcoin only for the purpose of making a profit, increasing their fiat money. What is more sad is that the majority of people investing in bitcoin in the market are people who are only interested in profit. Not many people really need and care about privacy. So don't be surprised to see more and more investors investing in bitcoin through ETFs or more centralized institutions.