It probably didn’t make as much of a difference as you think for average person. Trump actually delayed this implementation more broadly (in favor of firms like GE) a couple months ago. More and more 401ks are shifting to passive index funds with or without lawsuits. Choices are always good and investing costs were coming down significantly over the last 30 years even without passive funds.
Here's an excerpt:
The consequences for employees can be immense. From 2011 through mid-2016, the lawsuit says, a $1-billion investment in Fidelity’s Overseas fund would have grown to $1.57 billion. The same investment in GE’s International Fund, 90% of which was owned by GE’s 401(k), grew to only $1.22 billion, a relative shortfall of more than $300 million. Fidelity’s fund wasn’t offered to GE workers. A five year cumulative return of 57%, vs. a five year cumulative return of 22%.
That's *huge*.
If it were a passive fund, it's kinda hard for a passive fund to underperform the index that badly.
And GE Asset Management was sold by the Greedy Executives to State Street:
GE profited from this arrangement in two ways, according to the lawsuit. The company pocketed the investment management fees paid by its own employees, and it exploited its employees as a customer base for the funds — the 401(k) plan accounted for more than 70% of the ownership of all five funds and 90% of one, an international equity fund. The value that ownership gave the funds contributed to the $485 million GE pocketed when it sold its investment subsidiary, GE Asset Management, to State Street in mid-2016, the lawsuit implies.
So it was basically the GE Company store, run for the benefit of management, at the expense of employees.