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NancyLebovitz comments on Humans are not automatically strategic - Less Wrong
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Yeah, as JamesAndrix alludes to (warning: extreme geekery), the Dwarves were created by Aulë (one of the Valar (Gods)) because he was impatient for the Firstborn Children of Iluvatar (i.e., the Elves) to awaken. So you might call the Dwarves Aulë's attempt at creating the Elves; at least, he knew what the Elves would look like (from the Great Song), so it's pretty plausible that he impressed in the Dwarves an aesthetic sense which would rank Elves very highly.
Yes this is definitively correct. Also, it's a world with magic rings and dragons people.
There are different kinds of plausibility. There's plausibility for fiction, and there's plausibility for culture. Both pull in the same direction for LOTR to have Absolute Beauty, which by some odd coincidence, is a good match for what most of its readers think is beautiful.
What might break your suspension of disbelief? The usual BEM behavior would probably mean that the Watcher at the Gate preferencially grabbing Galadriel if she were available would seem entirely reasonable, but what about Treebeard? Shelob?
Particularly when referring to the movie versions, you could consider this simply a storytelling device, similar to all the characters speaking English even in movies set in non-English speaking countries (or planets). It's not that the Absolute Beauty of Middle-Earth is necessarily a good match for our beauty standards, it's that it makes it easier for us to relate to the characters and experience what they're feeling.