I'm not saying that people are being bred for a similar result, but that a variation in feed efficiency in people doesn't surprise me as a similar effect has been found in livestock.
However, I could imagine in the past feed efficiency was an evolutionary advantage.
You need the ugly to actually realize beauty. If everyone is beautiful, the word "beautiful" wouldn't make any sense.
You could argue that this would be a solution to many discrimination issues today if everyone is beautiful, strong, tall, ... . Mhh. Interesting thought.
As you realized, beauty is relative (to ugliness). I can't quite grasp how you missed this relative aspect by going further with your assumption of "everyone is beautiful". People will always find distinctions and there always will be a scale of beauty (or whatever else).
HN is mostly young people who only associate with young people; if you can get past whatever vestigial respect for elders remains as a cultural value, most people will agree that old people are a pretty good source of ugly. Especially pre-modern medicine, ravages of outdoor labor and warfare... We arguably do live in a world where all 20 year old women are beautiful, and the 90 year old women are somewhat less so.
