Harv wrote:
"In other words, natural selection as it occurs is the shortest path that nature should follow. If there were a shorter path, nature would surely follow that other path."

It would be fun to pretend that made sense.
Not wishing to lead you on, rather short of time just now and being congested, one will instead enlighten you ( maybe there is some irony in that statement ):
1) Our human brain is apparently supernatural or you would have mentioned that shorter path: design. We do design our future now.
2) If all paths nature follows were Natural Selection, the term (NS) would be meaningless. It requires contrast with outer paths which must exist at least on paper.
3) Actually, though, there is not one single path called Natural Selection, and also it is not the predominant process which is occurring in our time. We now have something different: selection based on information, much of it erroneous. It is Artificial Selection which drives macroevolution on Earth now because human activities are being planned, designed and carried out on such a dominating scale.
4) The second greatest extinction event of all-time on Earth is under way now and will take place in an extremely short time. Only meteor collisions have the suddenness and impact of a human population explosion on the die-off of diversity. Much of the plans and designs are based on erroneous information because humankind are barely aware of the potential power of this new activity: making plans and designing things.
WR
Mike