Agree. I think it safe to say that we haven't found an optimal solution for the problem discussed in the article. It's not even clear what the reward function

Agree. I think it safe to say that we haven't found an optimal solution for the problem discussed in the article. It's not even clear what the reward function should look like, so perhaps the comparison with reinforcement learning is not a productive one. Life combines both evolution and learning, and it's all rather complicated to say something sensible about it.