Comment by BoiledCabbage

Agreed, but to some degree relying on a simulator means it can no longer evolve truly novel solutions. No simulator would have accurately simulated many of the effects it was leveraging in the lab. Essentially you would only generate efficient uses of concepts we already know how to model / engineer well. Using the setup he used, it can generate things we don't understand well and can take advantage of. Or begin to study better.

That's was truly interesting about it to me.