In previous discussion, Geoffrey Miller mentioned the benefits of a luxurious venue. In my opinion, the benefits of a non-luxurious venue equal or outweigh those of a luxurious venue—for example, as a method to deter grifters.
It’s notoriously hard to place a value on aesthetics, which is one problem here: it’s a disagreement over what that value should be. You seem to be placing that value near-zero?
A much smaller example and anecdote springs to my mind, from college. For logistical reasons, two adjacent dorms were administratively treated as one staff, but the buildings weren’t very similar. One had been built in the late 1800s, beautiful brick building, nice hallways, etc etc. The other was built as an Army training barracks in the… 1930s, as I recall. It was supposed to be temporary but then sold to the university, renovated a couple times, and somehow (barely) still stood 80 years later. Want to take a guess which one students spent more time in, which one had the nice lounges always full, and which one students avoided as much as they could?
I’ve sort of come around on Wytham after my initial, reflexive revulsion. I’m still baffled that (supposedly) smart people can make what is to me such an obvious disaster in communication,but I do think aesthetics are an underrated (and perhaps deliberately ignored) aspect of a healthy movement that EA might finally be coming around on a bit. A non-luxurious venue could, in theory, be cheaper and maybe because it’s plain as dry toast everyone focuses on work instead- or perhaps no one wants to go there because it’s the aesthetic equivalent of an overgrown cubicle.
While I am unaware of any actual studies supporting it (indeed, the nature of the problem makes it rather resistant to study), that statement sounds like a rephrasing or redevelopment of what’s sometimes known as Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy:
Your last line, if I’m understanding you correctly, is to suggest that this is a good thing because of the nature of those in the second category in EA. One can imagine situations where this would be the case, such as Plato’s philosopher-kings worthy of trust.