TLDR; why do rich people go after ugly professional women? Do they know something the rest of us don’t?

I’ve noticed that a lot of highly (financially and politically) successful men marry women who aren’t attractive but either 1) are also rich, 2) high socioeconomic class, or 3) are ambitious. A lot of upper class professionals marry other professionals who are no lookers, but clearly make good money. The social science and economic data on “assortative mating” reveals this is endemic. This seems to be the case among wealthy Christians and non-Christians.

Meanwhile it’s my working class friends from back home who have the beautiful (albeit less well off) wives. I keep thinking now about whether “looks” are a sort of propaganda fed to the lower classes to keep them from building generative wealth... anyone else have similar thoughts? What do the wealthy know that the rest of us don’t?