Sadly, I realize you're right. But I keep falling back into that fantasy world where I think it's real and they're truly interested in finding love. Yeah-I know
During Emily Maynard's season, she picked Jef as her Final 1. He was the ex/lapsed Mormon who has a company which developed a water treatment process for extreme drought & contaminated water areas in Africa.
Emily later, supposedly has claimed that one of the reasons for their eventual break up was that she thinks Jef only came on the show promote his water treatment process. He said when he realized he was going to be one of the final guys, he went with it, to see how their relationship would develop on the show. But he always thought Emily would pick the race car driver in the end.
Then after he was chosen, the finale aired, and they could finally be a couple in public, with social media & magazines were following & publishing/posting their every move, one of the FIRST public things they did was go to Jef's company's treatment facility in Africa. Yes, it was publicized.
Jef probably only went on thinking that his company would get mentioned in his bio on The Bachelorette website. And if he made it far enough to have a one-on-one date with the Bachelorette, he could mention it again. He probably figured being a Mormon or previous one would knock him out of the running. But that's okay, his company got mentioned a couple times, which hopefully may net him a few investors.
If you think of it from a statistical point of view: If there is 1-2 people out there in the world, in this lifetime, who end up being THE one, the chances of him/her being in any group of 25, especially one "hand picked" is slim. How many groups of people do we meet throughout a week, where (s)he isn't among them? I don't personally believe that coming on the show, especially when not all 25 chosen are really there for the same reason, increases the odds. If anything, the odds are worse, as some of the contestants are there for fame & fortune. About 2-3 are "plants" by the producers to stir up controversy & ratings, 2 are the neurotic type who cry after being booted, when they've only spent 10 minutes with the Bachelor(ette.)
6 are there for fame & to be discovered, several are nice but BORING or there's just no connection. That leaves the final 6 who are real contenders. One is great, but just not the one. One is moving too slow compared to the where the others are. One contestant has "family" problems that becomes apparent during the Hometown date.
One has been picked by the producers to keep on till the end, even though the Bachelor(ette) knows he's not one of the Final 2, as that one is so well liked, that they are keeping him/her as a possible Bachelor(ette) for the next season if F2 backs out. Then there are the final two. And the Final 1 is picked by ELIMINATION from who was there.
Should one really pick their spouse by
elimination? Or do you pick him/her simply because they are the right one
in a world of 7.4 billion people on the planet and your souls gravitate toward the same time & place so you can
recognize each other?