You are right that outside of perception, nothing can be said to be other than that which it is, without any sort of categorization such as "ugly" or "beautiful." It is merely the original wholeness of reality that gets limited by the confines of the energetic capacity of our nervous system. As you mentioned, we can also increase this by our intention and daily practice to transcend those limits, to the best of our ability. Thanks for the insightful comment @aschatria :)