And it usually isn't a single judge. There is a panel of judges or en banc.
And juries aren't universal either. Lots of other countries don't have juries but they have a fair and equitable justice system. Look up civil law vs common law.
I trust an individual judge's opinion on almost any topic to be more intelligent than that of an individual jury member.
But there's huge selection bias in who becomes a judge, and so we end up with a pool of people who are mostly former prosecutors, which is another pool with a huge selection bias.
All of the judges I know personally (though not all I've been around) are well-meaning, fair-minded people, but with maybe one exception they're all true believers in the fairness of the system, and all tend to give tremendous unearned deference to prosecutors. We should absolutely not make them the finders of fact in criminal cases.
We'd need a full overhaul of the legal system from the ground up to get to a place where we could implement the better versions of lay judge participation, and if we got a full overhaul of the legal system that's not what we'd land on. And lay judges aren't really a balance between juries and judges in most implementations.
I want the judge to keep the lawyers in check so they cannot. Judges are trustable because the jury limits their power. If I am a lawyer I know whothe judges are and it is to my advantage to figure out their bias (including judge shopping if there is more than one in the area), looking for embaressing things or blackmail material, what bribes they will accept (often in form of donation to a family charity) and so one.
which is to say the reason I trust judges is the jury keeps them in check by ensuring there isn't value in the above corruption.
It would be very expensive but yes seems like a good option. Of course a problem in some places and systems is that judges are often political appointees which has its own implications
Norway has a tradition of using panels of judges that uses a mix of professional judges and lay judges drawn from the jury pool. I don't recall the specifics on when this systems used vs. a regular jury. They deliberate with the professional judge, has the majority, but can be overridden if their reasoning is blatantly contrary to the law.
And it usually isn't a single judge. There is a panel of judges or en banc.
And juries aren't universal either. Lots of other countries don't have juries but they have a fair and equitable justice system. Look up civil law vs common law.