I see your point, but I disagree, I think that, no matter how smart/intelligent someone is, you are never prepared to land on a different universe that you never even imagined existed.
There's a difference between being unprepared and being stupid.
He's a scientist, and not a random one since, according to the news shown on the game, his wife is the only person on Earth who can, perhaps, save his ass. So, he's the reference on his field of competence. Therefore, we can't expect less than him being well educated, and having a rational and logical thinking process.
I agree that he wasn't prepared for this, but he know enough to have the appropriated reactions. What he don't know about the place he landed on, he know it by idea/concept association of similar thing/situation on Earth. And proceeding this way is natural for him since he's not just a scientist working on someone else discovery, he's a researcher, the one who make the discovery. Associating idea/concept to find something new is what he do for living.
That's how a scientist would react in this kind of situation :
1) What I know from Earth which look like this ;
2) What it imply on Earth ;
3) Alright, so I'll react like this and wait to know more before adjusting my reaction.
By example, anyone with an average knowledge about middle age understand that a guy will not wander alone on armor. It's heavy, hot, uncomfortable and it limit considerably your liberty of movements ; if you travel, your armor stay on your baggage. This apply especially in the middle of nowhere, so the first person he encounter is surely a guard, and the rest of the patrol is somewhere near him ; and so, near to the MC.
Not only it's the best way to avoid problems, but it's also the best way to discover what differ between Earth and this place. And, as the scientist he is, being able to come back on Earth and write a report on the differences between the two lands, is one of the thing he have on mind.
[...] it's alot easier to identify yourself as the tough guy that can handle any situation "like a man" even if he is a little "slow".
"little" is the key word here. He's more plain stupid than a little slow.
Once again, I agree on the fact that identifying yourself with a smart ass scientist can be hard. But it's harder to identify yourself with someone supposed to be a smart ass scientist, while you pass half your time saying, "even me, I would have done better !"