People seem to see mystery in beauty.
No mystery.
Let’s say that attraction was random: the ones that were attracted to those who were most healthy in the sense of long term success in passing down genes would pass down their genes the best. That kind of attraction would persist the best and come to converge on certain naturally detectable signs that tended to determine success - beauty sufficiently accurately determines health in the sense of long term success in passing down genes that pass down their genes the best. Beauty is just a side effect of successful sexual selection, no matter what form it takes.
And so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that beautiful people are more desirable and picked in the sexual marketplace… it’s because they should be in order to best propagate the species. It sucks if you’re relatively ugly in any of the numerous different ways, but your lot isn’t fixed - there are things you can do to enhance the kinds of beauty that are most desirable for your sex. There are also those who cannot compete, and they will look for alternative ways to push the boundaries of what is sexually desirable and to transfer attention away from tried and tested ways in which they fail to their new ways in which they think they might better succeed. This is absolutely valid as well, as it breathes new life into otherwise more rigid structures that may not remain optimal forever, and might be surpassed. Beauty in traditional ways need not be disrespected because it has earned its place, but alternative beauty will still surpass it whenever successful (and fail dramatically when it doesn’t).
This is a great analogy for politics too, and why conservatives should be respected, but the successful left should be respected more (and the unsuccessful less).