I did it, got pretty much my entire face done, skin and bone. The only part untouched was the skin above my upper lip. I went from a 4 on a good day to a 7 but probs more because I'm my own worst critic. You would never know I had anything done unless you knew from the perfectly ideal nose curve. 6 hours on the operating table, 4 days of misery, couple of metal plates, some screws, and 6 months ish of not being able to feel the top of my head which was more novel than anything else. Best money I've ever spent.

A lot of the photos you see of "plastic surgery face" are before the swelling comes down and you look normal again.

Same reason you see the bad CGI in movies. When it's good, you don't.

People that get high quality facial work, especially when they are younger, and don’t have negative reactions to don’t stand out as “people that had plastic surgery”.

At a certain point it catches up to you, but it’s very feasible for a 40 year old to look 30.

The usual wisdom here is that people often see what they think is X_1 post application of plastic surgery and ask why they they'd do that to the beautiful X_0 they were. The reality is often that people are talking about how X_35 is so much worse than X_34 and how X_34 was the epitome of natural beauty.

So it's a stopping problem. One might as well ask "You bought your Bitcoin at $0.01?! Why didn't you sell it when it was $60k?!".

Selection bias.

Good taste, or lack thereof: https://xkcd.com/915/

It's possible to become a "connoisseur" at anything. Music, art, movies, food, wine, or physical attractiveness.

People with poor taste[1] get bad plastic surgery, and are rewarded for these decisions because members of the opposite sex with similarly poor taste become more attracted to them.

This is the equivalent to junk food being loaded up with salt, fat, and sugar: it works on a surprisingly large fraction of the population.

Personally, I much prefer a fancy meal that involves spices, herbs, and visual appeal, but I'm actually in the minority in this respect.

Similarly, I prefer elegantly dressed women with air of grace about them, but that's just me and my refined taste. There are enough men out there that simply want bigger boobs, that this has spawned a multi-billion-dollar plastic surgery industry. Not to mention push-up bras, etc...

[1] Some people would argue that all taste is relative, that there is no right or wrong here, etc... Normally I would agree, but we've all seen the "People of Wallmart", and... well... yeah.