And in Pareto, there's a rule like that built in because you're only allowed to make moves that increase utility. You're not allowed to move backwards, which can lead to getting trapped in a local maximum.

That’s not precisely correct, because there is some “noise” in the system. Also, multiple genes can have competing effects, so one gene’s individual fitness can be suppressed by another.

The mutations are like little nudges to throw you off the local maximum.

And there's junk DNA where mutations can accumulate over time without being subject to selection before getting enabled at random to see if they give you an advantage.

I think both the amount of junk DNA and the mutation rate are themselves subject to evolution for the best trade-off.

That's the exact opposite of random mutation.