‘Survival of the fittest’ doesn’t mean strongest. It means a variation that is better at surviving in a given environment. An unusual amount of muscle mass might not give you an advantage in surviving and having kids.
If you are in a resource-poor environment, having tons of muscle and an extremely high metabolism will make it easier for you to starve. And it’s not just about that individual: If you have to overhunt prey in your territory to survive, the prey dies off and you also starve.
And that environment can change. There’s a reason why large dinosaurs didn’t survive the ice age, but smaller creatures did.
One of humanity’s adaptations is society, and it’s a pretty neat trick. Individuals don’t die because of injuries or chronic medical conditions — and differences in physical or cognitive abilities don’t stop people from contributing to society and personal relationships.
I recommend taking claims about evolutionary psychology with a grain of salt but we all rely on each other and have social needs, so we select partners that we enjoy being around. I think it’s safe to say that tends to strengthen bonds which hold us together and keep societies running.
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