I think the opposite. Guys that look strong but can't lift sh1t is hilarious.
" pretty body, but what can you do with it?"
Like having a badass muscle car
, but nothing under the hood.
Numbers impress me more than a waistline.
That being said, once I loose visible abs I check the diet.
To each their own.
Perhaps we can look at this from a more optimal angle.
I'm going to use a Biblical analogy as an explanation, since it so similarly aligns itself with this very same topic of superficiality and authenticity and is something I understand
very well.
Often times, people in the Christian religion get into heated debates over "works vs faith" based forgiveness.
But if you have a life full of decisions (works) that align themselves with what you claim to believe is true (faith), well then you are
authentic. Authenticity generates much more respect for this very reason - that your beliefs and actions are aligned. Everyone knows it is far more rare a thing to see a person align their physical world with their intellectual faculties. When this happens, they've entered into a type of success that only few find...and people innately understand this when they see it and can't help but respect it, even if the values and beliefs differ from their own. The important thing here is that if they have lots of faith, it almost always means they also possess behaviors that, over time, have aligned themselves with their said value structure. The more they have, the greater their potential impact is. A real life example of this is tithing for instance. Some people depend on following a set of rules to determine whether or not they are worthy or good. A typical rule of thumb for giving is 10%, because an ancient law says so. Those depending on their behavior for credibility will hit 10% and stop, because perfection, at least in this regard, has been attained. The fellow that lives by faith keeps on going, and over time learns to give 1/2 of his wealth away.
Likewise, having boatloads of bubbly muscle (faith or intellectual value system) without the strength (works) to go with it is unusual and rare. Sure, you might not be the strongest fellow in the gym, but I guarantee you that the strongest also have the mass to go with it. But to be muscular and fit and have almost no strength is indeed strange and typically isn't admired. This is also why the Bible teaches that you can have works but no faith but that you are a liar if you claim to have faith but possess no works. Something is wrong if a man has 20" arms (and is lean) yet is only as strong as a typical man with a 13" arm. Something doesn't add up. Something isn't real or admirable about that kind of muscle mass. Heck,
it might not even be muscle.
But there are others that have all the strength (works) and not much muscle (faith) to show for it. It might be impressive, but if you don't have the body to match the strength, you are leaving some influence on the table. You are also approaching your max capability, since you have no additional muscular fiber to recruit as a resource. The guy with all the muscle that is inherently strong due to the mass - he is stronger than the average person yet he does not train for strength. Imagine if he did. His capacity for strength is likely off the charts because he has more to work with, genetics aside.
This is why the strongest, most influential and most impressive guys, have both. And in my humble opinion, to aspire completely for one and not at all for the other, you're leaving a portion of your potential greatness on the table.
Aspire for both and influence the world around you maximally.
Also, we should be careful not to judge the authenticity on absolute strength. Rather, judge based on work capacity. Training style often dictates what kind of work that muscle is good at. For instance, Tom Platz had something like 30-32" thighs but rarely ever trained beyond 315lbs on squats. However, he would bang out a few hundred reps of 225 - 315lbs over a short period of time then hop on a bike a ride for 10's of miles at a time.