Hmm, I only half agree with your statement on success being a effective way to gauge a mate's value. Yes, success indicates some level of ability, but is in no way a true measure. For instance, a person who has gained his fortune mainly by inheritance and little work of their own is not nearly skilled as a person who has done it nearly all themselves. Or, often someone is in the right place at the right time, but they themselves are fairly average (maybe they joined a randmom startup and was always a junior member of the company, but still became super wealthy because the company IPO'd and they happened to have a decent number of shares).

I'd agree though on average it does indicate some greater chance at being more skilled, but for me at least, success doesn't directly gauge a mate's value. Like many things, it is a lot of factors that all need to be considered together.