You haven't mentioned what to me is a much more important evolutionary pressure: other humans. Politics is a feature of the ancestral environment. Humans aren't

You haven't mentioned what to me is a much more important evolutionary pressure: other humans. Politics is a feature of the ancestral environment. Humans aren't smart because they need to out-compete other species, or a harsh environment. Other animals do this as well, and none of those are as smart (sorry octopi, elephants, dolphins and crows). Humans are so intelligent because they had to out-compete each other, in a positive feedback loop that produced where we are at today