I'd say he has a good "fight" IQ but no he's not quite smart. He has also "not applied himself to perfection" in terms of his powers as there are others who have progressed just as or faster than him in terms of growth with their powers such as met (or any twins, or the superhuman "exception" who got to level 5 in a month) so would they be applying themselves beyond perfection?The MC is actually quite smart by all indicators, he's just generally lazy. He only comes into his own when he gets his powers and applies himself to perfection with them.
Very much a case of 'I don't know what to do with my life' right up until he meets Ella.
Every one of MCs high school friends think it's werid that MC is going to R&X, MC openly admits it's only because of his daddy (blackmail), he falls asleep in class and has been doing so for YEARS, and then you have all the examples of stupidity in game like him 100% convinced amber was a camgirl because "Blue fingernails", most of the "smart" (beating valravn honorably, not getting caught in sin infiltration etc) are player choice dependent and shouldn't be attributed to every single MC (like corruption)
Edit: Also without stupid dumb luck (syla being MC mom while also being connected to an apostle that can help you train while drugged up) MC is missing 1/3rd to 1/4th of his power (or whatever 120/your power is) that really doesn't seem like he's getting all his power through "him applying himself"