I legit wonder if this is in part because of the [subconscious] pressure it may put on the partner to also be in peak physical condition.
An "if he's not in perfect shape, I don't have to be in perfect shape" kind of thing.
Hard to tell.
What people say in polls isn't necessarily what they really want. What many woman do (hook up with a normal dad bod) is probably more with the fact there's more average beer gutters than Wolverines.
It's like when I'd talk dating with coworkers. The women would always say "it's not about what they look like. It's about sense of humour and being good with kids".
Then when we'd ask each other what kind of online dating filters we'd do, EVERY woman who was doing online dating at the time picked the $75,000 or higher income brackets for their male candidate. This is when Match.com had income brackets you can fill out. They got rid of that years ago. Then suddenly they are like.... "Well, I don't want him to use my money. I don't want to support him." Even when I said what if he's a really good guy in the $50-75,000 bracket, it's was a no-go. Not enough money as my peers and I all made at the time around $100k. So suddenly the "good funny dad" motto is important ONLY if you made decent money to go with it.
When I filled in my profile and didn't state my income bracket (I was thinking every person would do this), I got only so many hits. The second I chose the $100-125,000 bracket), my view hits literally tripled overnight. Suddenly my inbox icon is getting red flags every day like I just turned on Niagara Falls. All because I put in some income. On the other hand, I didn't give a shit what she made and left the income bracket on my filters as blank so it didnt' matter what money you made.