Does not seem to me to be like that. Seems to me what this is saying is that on shorter time scales it tries out many different combinations that when you look

Does not seem to me to be like that. Seems to me what this is saying is that on shorter time scales it tries out many different combinations that when you look at them on longer time scales have settled into whatever wins that process. It sort of settles on longer scales of time to the optimal solution that survives, in shorter periods of time it's experimenting with the search space. In longer periods of time it's decided on the answer so it converges on that space. Putting it this way, evolution is just a search to find something that works or works better, the results being tested continuously by the environment.