Symmetry

So there is this so-called by the popular media surfer dude who has a preprint on how the Theory of Everything can be based on the E₈ Lie algebra. I have little clue about theoretical physics so I don't have anything to say on the actual physics idea, but in the comment section of a blog post discussing the pre-print, someone says:

"Beautiful" An off-topic serious question: One sees this this a lot in the scientific literature and I would like to ask why. Evolution built this admiration for symmetric features into us for it's purposes. Why do scientists persist in assuming that a criteria for animals to choose mates is appropriate for choosing theories.

Which I think is an excellent question! I have no answer but I have the impression that beauty as a criterion for science is much more common in theoretical physics than in something more down to earth, such as biology. Indeed one the most beautiful ideas in molecular biology, i.e. comma-free code for DNA, happened to be wrong.