Depends on the job.
Engineer, recruiter, and linebacker all have different needed characteristics, sometimes acquired and sometimes intrinsic.
That's the only consistent definition of "fair"
Your ability to craft an idea in correct logic of a language does not mean the logic is meaningful to reality.
I think you’re making up a narrative that sounds roughly technical, roughly contemporary wisdom but is 100% primate throwing BS.
Hiring former work associates (friends) is more solid.
Proof? I'm not going to spend the effort to cite data here, since we have no prior relationship.
There are a lot of environmental factors that contribute to intelligence, not to mention a lot of neuro issues.
There is no pill for beauty but there are several for ADHD.
“You’re not ugly, just poor.” Is a saying for a reason. There’s plastic surgery, ozempic, having the time/drive to work out consistently, dressing well, eating well, etc etc.
People can improve their beauty score by 2-3 points if they have the drive and/or money.
There are in fact many. Grooming, diet, exercise, apparel, cosmetics, supplements, dentistry, surgery, non-surgical treatments.
A wise person once said, "there are no ugly people, only poor people."
However, the entire purpose of early stage VCs is to allocate capital by discriminating between founders. To that extent discriminating on non protected characteristics like education, experience and presentation skills are fair game.
I’m assuming attractiveness is a non protected characteristic but we’d need to be careful to define it in a way that doesn’t accidentally proxy for protected characteristics.
I once had a debate with a friend about whether it was ethical to hire someone based on looks, because looks were something mostly inherent to the person and not earned (how well you take care of it and fitness withstanding), and he argued that it was just as ethical or even more so than hiring for intelligence which is just as inherent, but offers similar types of advantages. I've been more open minded about it since, more of the opinion of "use the pretty person to be a front/face" almost along the lines of "put the right person in the right position".