Well, part of the goal is also to finish in less than 6 guesses, so surely an optimal starting pattern is best. And since you can't do better than each letter

Well, part of the goal is also to finish in less than 6 guesses, so surely an optimal starting pattern is best. And since you can't do better than each letter being unique, you might as well ensure those unique letters are both common and ideally positioned. From that point on, the remaining words I guess you could brute force, or combine statistical with statistical to cover best letters first. I'm sure brute forcing will probably guarantee a win almost always, but will it be, for example a 3 or 4 word win which is pretty easy to do for a human.