Not only have we been told that looks can be deceiving but we can often see that confirmed for us just by going through daily life.
And that seems to go double when we compare what we think looks awesome to what actually turns out to work the best for us. For instance, it's not likely that too many people would have predicted that they'd rather play Among Us than Cyberpunk 2077 but it's probably a pretty common feeling right now when you consider how those respective games turned out.
And if you're looking for a less niche example of this phenomenon, each of the things on this list are united by how much better they worked out than it seemed they had a right to.