Politeness Principle at its best!

A friend of mine had just recently started dating a guy who is in our dance class. She went on a date with him the other night and called me to fill me in but to also ask for my opinion. She asked, "So what do you think about him?" I honestly didn't know much about him, for I only had two classes with him thus far. I was searching for something positive to say about him because, let's be straight, he wasn't all that cute. He was kinda nerdy in a respectful way, lol, and too thin and scrawny. I feel like force feeding him fattening foods like cupcakes and cookies and pasta and cheese and... you get my point. All because he is so thin. Anyway, to be polite and minimize the cost of hurting my friends feelings because she obviously sees something in him that I don't, I responded with "well, he is an engineer." The implicature of this response is "He's got one good thing going for him and that aint his looks." lol that probably sounds really mean but what could I do? I acted through the politeness principle by minimizing my expressions of impolite beliefs about the guy she was dating and chose an expression that caused the minimum loss of face to her. I don't think she caught on to what I was implying because she agreed and started talking about his job and all his responsibilities and yada yada ya. If she finds him attractive then that's all that matters. However, I should add that he is a real nice guy and a good leader (that is on the dance floor). :)