> do the high-fees still give you a better risk-adjusted return?

Yes. With your standard 2 and 20 fee structure, you don't pay performance fees on anything below 8% returns. Performance fees are where bonuses come from, so anyone coming up short sees capital and employees disappear overnight.

RenTech has a 40+% performance fee on their Medallion fund because it consistently generates 60% returns YoY.

You might have indicated you were talking about a hedge fund with non public listings and no transparency. If investing was as easy as picking whatever did well in the past then we'd all be billionaires.