You left off the most important point. If you think a topic is important and that someone smarter than you is already working on it, it would seem like your best move is to try and help.
Having been in the position of the smart person dealing with someone less smart trying to “help” him, I can tell you this is not necessarily the case.
There’s lots of ways to help. For example, if I wanted to help you work on an important problem and you were so much smarter (or otherwise more competent) than I that I could never contribute any useful assistance to that project, I could instead offer to pay your rent or do your laundry or cook your meals or otherwise perform tasks better-suited to my comparatively limited skills, thereby freeing up your intellect to work full-time on the problem.
Having been in the position of the smart person dealing with someone less smart trying to “help” him, I can tell you this is not necessarily the case.
There’s lots of ways to help. For example, if I wanted to help you work on an important problem and you were so much smarter (or otherwise more competent) than I that I could never contribute any useful assistance to that project, I could instead offer to pay your rent or do your laundry or cook your meals or otherwise perform tasks better-suited to my comparatively limited skills, thereby freeing up your intellect to work full-time on the problem.
Or, in other words, comparative advantage for the win!