holy yap bro 😭😭😭😭 dark skin isn't an 'aesthetic choice' when it reflects real peoples identities. preferring one skintone over another because of aesthetic bias is just blatant colorism and dragging east asians into this to justify that preference just derails the conversation.
It does not: I'm quite literally pointing out how a divergence from the base is a conscious choice of altering the aesthetics from the norm. It IS an aesthetic choice to depict the Greek Gods as having any significantly darker skin tone than the Eastern Mediterranean ones. Colorism is pretty much how things work; yes, East Asians avoid the sun with shite like Umbrellas in part because of that aesthetic bias, and so the same vice versa for those looking for tans.
I don't know what's so hard about accepting this point. It's like saying making the gods have sharp ears is a clear artistic or aesthetic choice recalling the elf motif.