How often do people travel between non-ground floors though? In my own experience, whether it's a residential or an office building, 99% of elevator usage is a) someone going down to the ground floor, and b) someone going up from the ground floor. There are some exceptions like hotels that have amenities on different floors though.
The first elevator "algorithm", if you can even call it that, that I've ever encountered and that seems intuitive to me, is what Soviet relay logic elevators did. If it's not in use and someone calls it, it goes there. If it's in use, it will collect the calls on its way down (and ignore them on the way up, these had no up/down call buttons). It's surprisingly effective for apartment buildings.
The first elevator "algorithm", if you can even call it that, that I've ever encountered and that seems intuitive to me, is what Soviet relay logic elevators did. If it's not in use and someone calls it, it goes there. If it's in use, it will collect the calls on its way down (and ignore them on the way up, these had no up/down call buttons). It's surprisingly effective for apartment buildings.