My hair stands on end when folks (on either side) talk about genes benefiting, or genes being selfish, or whether. This kind of language adds heat but no light. Specific genes become more or less frequent in a population depending on the reproductive success of organisms. It makes no difference at all why the organisms survive and reproduce. The sphinx cat, a recent mutation, is ugly as sin and extremely unlikely to survive without human interference. But there is human interference. The "success" or "failure" of genes has nothing at all to do with the innate characteristics of the gene.
Didn't mean to do that! I attribute no consciousness to genes. Perhaps I should have stated "My passing them on, keeps them around longer."