The part of the argument made by looking at individual countries is much less compelling in a world where low cost total world stock etfs exist.

They are of course weighted heavily to the US just given the size of US stocks, but one can reduce that exposure by buying low cost regional etfs or even just total world ex-US.

That seems like a better risk averse approach (possibly with some allocation to a total bond etf depending on your time horizon) than trying to pick individual value stocks.