Selected through continued survival and reproduction. Maybe a more accurate template would be something like, "Awesome, I've evolved with [trait] which deters predators!"

Who designed the process of evolution?

(Jk)

Same here. Evolution doesn't work that way. It's basically the opposite. Species don't evolve to solve a problem, they evolve randomly and sometimes that solves a problem for them. Or sometimes, it pushes the species into a very narrow niche where its survival is ensured as long as the current extremely precarious situation they find themselves in doesn't change.

Wait, wtf? Mouth dry! Mouth dry!

It also functions as insect repellant (1)

Predators: nooooo don't add nicotine! Please DO not add nicotine!

And the peppers that troll the fuck out of your temperature receptors?

Had an armchair hypothesis last night. Yeast makes alcohol, and we basically domesticated it on accident. Beer/wine making goes back to the neolithic (at least), and we're in a symbiotic relationship with it.

That part is pretty well established science, but the the hypothesis goes that alcohol reduces human inhibitions, which makes us fuck more, which means more humans who want to continue making beer and wine with the secret helper, yeast.

But maybe that's not right and verging on evo psych territory of a hypothesis that has no strong evidence beyond fitting some known facts.

This is the correct answer.

Life is programmed to make more of itself. Successful life means more successful reproduction and numbers.

Just because we consume that life doesn’t mean that it failed in any way; quite the opposite, if we propagate that life because we find it desirable for some reason that life has become more successful than its competitors.

Everything from apple trees to cattle have become incredibly successful thanks to humans’ desire for them and being the benefactors of their propagation. They are the winners in a backhanded sort of way.

Well, at least until we meet our eventual demise by hyper-abusing our environment, yeah..