This one was a little bit of a face-palm for me the first time I noticed it. If we’re being pedantic about it, we might point out that the term “optimization algorithm” does not just refer to AIXI-like programs, which optimize over expected future world histories. Optimization algorithms include all algorithms that search over some possibility space, and select a possibility according to some evaluation criterion. For example, gradient descent is an algorithm which optimizes over neuron configuration, not future world-histories.
This distinction is what I was trying to get at with selection vs control.