I don’t think the “idea of scientific thinking and evidence” has so much to do with throwing away information as adding reflection, post which you might excise the cruft.
Being able to describe what you’re doing, ie usefully compress existing strategies-in-use, is probably going to be helpful regardless of level of intelligence because it allows you to cheaply tweak your strategies when either the situation or the goal is perturbed.
I don’t think the “idea of scientific thinking and evidence” has so much to do with throwing away information as adding reflection, post which you might excise the cruft.
Being able to describe what you’re doing, ie usefully compress existing strategies-in-use, is probably going to be helpful regardless of level of intelligence because it allows you to cheaply tweak your strategies when either the situation or the goal is perturbed.