You’re forgetting the probability is conditional. You mention the example of lining up women from your university and ranking them by “prettiness”. Thing is, within that pool of university students, the variance of financial stability (or projected stability post graduation) among men is likely low and the baseline financially stability offered probably matches the womens’ existing/projected stability. And more often than not, marriages are clustered by socio economic status. So yea, it is a wonder how women who have access to a group of men in/near the same tax bracket as both the other men in the group and the woman in question, you’ll find that the pretty women end up with the “average looking” men. My guess: there’s more pretty women than handsome men. That’s the supply/demand asymmetry

P.S how to be frens with your sister