There are also capital gains which may be distributed to unit...

There are also capital gains which may be distributed to unit holders - this is not generally disclosed in marketing materials, and usually provided retrospectively with EOFY tax statements. That is, simply holding a managed fund (for many years) will attract recurring (and unpredictable) CGT liabilities.

Regarding the unit pricing cum and ex distribution, this may not be transparent, and may entail further frictional losses or transaction charges. Increasingly, managed funds and LICs are reporting NTA daily, but historically this has not been the case; other funds report daily pricing, but at T-2 (that is, delayed). Therefore, simply entering and exiting these funds may allow income to be delivered as capital gains (for control and flexibility), but the frictional losses associated with this strategy are likely to be greater than zero for these indirect investments.