jss

I think we need to accept that aikido was not created by O-sensei after he traveled the world, made a scientific analysis of all martial arts and all physical confrontations, after which he reached an enlightened conclusion as how to create the ultimate martial art.

He learned Daito-ryu from Takeda and added all other interesting stuff he could find. Daito-tyu is a member of the Japanese jujutsu arts. These arts grew from a very specific part of broad martial systems that included weapons, grappling, strategy, etc.
As you can read in Ellis Amdur's blogs on AikidoJournal: in these older forms of jujutsu the guy with the weapon kills the unarmed guy. And somehow, somewhen this was changed. And this changed in a period in time in which Japan was isolated culturally. How much did the Japanese know about boxing at the time, or about karate? Did they ever realize there are better ways to hit a man than with a te-gatana?
To put it bluntly: one can think of far more suitable cultures for a truely effective martial art to develop.

Or in conclusion: aikido is not about Intelligent Design, it's about evolution in an isolated environment. (Aikido is a kangaroo.)