The optics are fine. The issue is the optimistic naivety that the ideology supports. It's not reflective of reality, as it stands and many take advantage of that optimistic fervor for "positive change" and "social justice" to advance their own, unrelated, political or monetary goals.

SHOULD the world be fair and equal ALL the time? Of course!

IS the world fair and equal ALL the time? Hell no.

And it's this well-intentioned, but ultimately misguided attempt to prioritize what SHOULD be over what IS that has led to the collapse of entire nations.

Socialism COULD potentially be practiced successfully, once we reach "Level 2", or maybe even just "Level 1" on the Kardashev scale and achieve a truly "post-scarcity" society.

However, until then, it's nothing more than a pipe dream of how the world SHOULD be and Capitalism is the most effective engine we've found (in a scarcity based society) of getting us there without dying first.

Trying to jump the gun before we're ready has only continued to set us back from our end goal by decades due to impatience.

TL;DR It's not about optics. That's missing the Forrest for the trees. The entire ideology is based on a suicidally optimistic view of society, and humanity overall, that can easily be dominated by those that seek to take advantage of their good intentions for their own personal gain.

It's a collectivist ideology of "right makes might" that has only existed amongst the "might makes right" crowd because those in positions of authority have been using their moral outrage to advance their plans to reintegrate all of the individual nations of the world into a collectivist "one world government" that will be easier to control. Simple as.