Outliers disprove the trend, its true.

They define it's limits and illustrate it's flaws.

But what I see most commonly referred to as "intelligence" tends to be phrased as "common wisdom". You cannot simultaneously be "smart" and "wrong". Therefore, placidly regurgitating the correct answers somehow signify more intelligence than painstakingly carving out another view.

I’m glad I used absolute terms with no nuance

Well, that's sort of the joke, isn't it?