The main thing that evolution optimized for is simply having a child, not for having a child with the most attractive possible person.
I think this undervalues the evolutionary importance of having an attractive partner (see sexual selection). If I have an attractive mate then my children are more attractive and in turn will have more opportunities to have children, significantly adding to my overall genetic fitness. This process can lead to spectacular results.
Introspecting purely on my base desires and not accounting for high level reasoning, I would trade ~3 chances to mate with a medium attractive person for one chance to mate with a highly attractive person. I wouldn’t swap for people I find unattractive no matter how many. This suggests that, if I am typical of humanity, attractiveness of partner is actually more optimized for than simply having a child.
I think this undervalues the evolutionary importance of having an attractive partner (see sexual selection). If I have an attractive mate then my children are more attractive and in turn will have more opportunities to have children, significantly adding to my overall genetic fitness. This process can lead to spectacular results.
Introspecting purely on my base desires and not accounting for high level reasoning, I would trade ~3 chances to mate with a medium attractive person for one chance to mate with a highly attractive person. I wouldn’t swap for people I find unattractive no matter how many. This suggests that, if I am typical of humanity, attractiveness of partner is actually more optimized for than simply having a child.