It's quite possible that the worse solution won over the better one - i.e. agrarian societies, while having a lower standard of living, were much better at cent

It's quite possible that the worse solution won over the better one - i.e. agrarian societies, while having a lower standard of living, were much better at centralizing power/money and thus funding an army that would slowly stamp out the hunters-gatherers (or the nomadic shepherd societies later on).