You're throwing 12 - 16 pound balls about 16 mph in a way that causes the ball to spin. That takes a decent amount of arm and upper body strength to do it well consistently. Some amount of fitness is required.

If bowling paid like the NBA, you'd see very few non-fit pro bowlers.

At $5 million over 42 years, you bowl because you like it, not because it makes money. People who are fit but are otherwise not good enough to play high-paying professional sports can probably find better paying jobs elsewhere.

Professional bowling is populated by the people it is populated with partly because this is as good or better an option than others that they have.

I feel like you kinda dodged the point here by shifting the definition of fitness.

I would speculate that most top tier bowlers do have the arm and upper body strength to do it well.

They also have a variety of body-fats and other attributes that don't particularly impact performance.

>If bowling paid like the NBA, you'd see very few non-fit pro bowlers.

Why do you think that would be the case if it doesn't impact performance?

If chess paid like the NBA, we still wouldn't expect top players to look like NBA athletes.

I said you don't see "conventionally fit" guys. You inferred my claim was that physical fitness was not required.

And the reason I used bowling is because it is a physical sport. And with physical sports, better overall physical fitness can give you an edge.

Hell, even in chess they're beginning to consider how physical conditioning impacts performance.

But now you're kind of at the point of arguing the metaphor. There are more desirable positions in software development and less desirable ones. And everyone is applying for everything. And if one group is cut off from the more desirable ones, they will start to become over-represented in the less desirable ones.