My biologist friend describes the ecosystem of human beliefs like an ecosystem of organisms - those with more fit characteristics will more likely survive and grow.

The National Museum of Asian Art has an exhibit about religious art from South Asia. In it, I noticed the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist art shared the concept of an enlightened state without form, taking form in the idealized bodies of religious figures. The enlightened state without form and the idealized bodies of religious figures both represent more fit characteristics of a human belief system.

In an enlightened state without form you'll rise above the ugliness of the physical plane; you won't have diarrhea in nirvana/heaven!

Yet we still exist on the physical plane, so to lend physicality to enlightenment, the belief systems have religious figures. You'd portray those religious figures in idealized bodies to create a sense of beauty, and perhaps awe. For example, the 32 lakṣaṇas of a buddha include webbed fingers and toes and well-retracted genitals. You might complain about unrealistic standards of beauty for enlightenment; that sounds like someone not enlightened who should get back to becoming enlightened and spreading the belief!

Note the earliest phase of Buddhism was aniconic; the iconic variant seems to have survived and outgrown the aniconic one. Also note the idealized bodies of religious figures extends beyond South Asian belief systems; the American tradition of Christianity often portrays Jesus as light-skinned, despite being born in Galilee, and despite references in the Bible to beryl, jasper, and brass.