There are theories that the skin tone denoted power and strength vs feminity and “womanhood”.
Many paintings depict dark men and light women.
The rape of ruins and statues, as in your example, was a horrible crime.
Yet maybe some things got preserved that would have been lost. The doors to St. John Lateran are from the Roman Senate [Curia Julia]. And they are awesome.
OTH, the marble from the Colosseum probably would have been better left there.
It was also an artistic convention to denote that men typically went outside to earn and whatnot, and women remained were in the home.