I was talking about the beneficial mutation, but as you have observed, this applies equally well to the imaginary nonlife which some say evolved into life.

Actually, my choice of terms could be better. Under the paradigm, 'Selection' is actually a process of pure subtraction. Nothing is ever 'selected for'.

Old School Darwinism was pretty strict about this, but 'Selection' has been abstracted into a god, and nobody wants to say anything unpalatable about the god any more.

Consider the analogy of a classroom. The only students who are 'selected' are those who fail the grade. Even those who squeak by with a D- pass. Selection only cares about pass or fail. Darwin was deeply concerned about this sort of thing. He insisted that all populations of lifeforms must undergo frequent famines (or similar disasters). In the classroom analogy, this would be like raising the standard, and failing anyone with a C or even a B.

In more recent times, not much attention at all is paid to the problem of C & D students lowering the overall G.P.A. At least not openly. Eugenics is the 'science' founded to resolve this evolutionary problem (for mankind, at least), and the eugenicists tend to keep fairly quiet these days.