Politicians like optics because it's usually a lot easier than solving problems.
Take Social Security for example. Solutions are fairly easy, they would have been easier 20 years ago than now. But, no one wants to touch it now because of optics, save a few who want to lift the cap (which has other implications obviously).
Or take climate change. We are back in the Paris Agreement, as if that DOES anything, beyond some paperwork. Optics. Trump pulled out. Optics. Doing something REAL would be nearly impossible, so we have agreements.
Immigration reform, each side depicts the other in extreme terms to create the optical illusion they are bad.
Just about everything, to me, is optics. Gun control, voting "reforms" in Georgia, energy policy, .... Exxon ads about getting fuel from algae. Their tech guys know why this is a bad idea. Carbon capture. The best carbon capture things are plants. But when they die you need to bury them so they don't degrade. I lived through the era of landfills reaching capacity. It was malarkey. It was known malarkey. But optics played. I bet one could review the MAJOR issues of the day back in the past and realize much of it was fabricated optics and meant little.
Blend all that with news coverage of "stars" of one sort or another saying this or that.