You know, what made my neighbors chocolate lab so ugly was his eyes and head. He had a huge square head and sunk eyes.
Your friends lab in the picture has those ugly eyes.
I have a black lab that has beautiful brown eyes. It's kind of disconcerting because they look human. She's not a great dog, though. Just your regular run of the mill lab.
The loose eyelids are one of the common issues with those dogs. That dog's father was a field trial champ who had his eyelids tightened up surgically so he had nice pretty eyes in his pictures. Of course... that didn't fix the gene pool.
The eyes are important. Focusing on one trait to the detriment of all others is the mistake that is repeated again and again when people get involved in selective breeding. There are many many good breeders... but there are also many who think if they can corner the market on this one thing, they'll make the bigger bucks.