Which would you prefer? A salary of 200k or a salary of 210k? Everything else is perfectly identical. Same place same job same time etc etc.

Does that question sound borderline moronic?

That is because people don't get to pick from between two perfectly identical jobs with one one having a straight up extra cash.

This is reference to the recent spate of posts insisting that looksism is the most important thing in the world because all things being equal people will choose a more attractive person.

The things is all things are not equal people are not rats in a laboratory. There are hundreds of traits that determine attractiveness and they all come mixed and matched at different levels and appeal to different people at different orders of importance. Then you have proximity, opportunity, random luck, level of effort, outside help, social context etc etc ad infinium.

Are there general trends? of course it's better to be richer, more popular, better looking, more extroverted, etc Does that mean that anyone with a less than perfect score is doomed to failure? of course not.

If out of a hundred variables there are one or two you cant control, what does it matter. You can control all the rest and get what you want out of life.

There is always someone that had it easier. Someone that was born richer, taller, better looking, more talented, more charismatic, etc

What is that to you? Do those people matter to you? Do they prevent you from doing what you set out to do?