That’s an interesting observation! I’ve had something like this experience when teaching programming, going from trying to explain my approach to “oh I see, you have a different approach and it makes sense too”. Or just getting some partial understanding of what mental algorithm the student is executing and in with ways it fails to match with reality.
what they’re doing makes sense on the inside
I am wary of trying to understanding people too hard. A lot of things people say is a network running in reverse, a bullshit generator for whatever conclusion they already decided on, whatever outcome that’s socially convenient to them. Sure, it makes sense to them on the inside—but soon (if it’s more convenient to them) they’ll believe a slightly different, or a very different thing, without ever noticing they changed their mind.
I suppose the true-understanding here would be to notice the parts of their belief systems are more “real”/invariant, the parts are that are unreal/contradictory, and the invisible presence in the background that is pressuring the belief system into whatever shape it is at the moment.
To offer a data point, my reaction to your post was not “this person is weird and I should make fun of them”, it’s more of “this person is interesting and it’s good that more people are being open about their ‘weirdness’/non-typicalness”.
Aside from this, I’m not sure I have any useful advice to give. I never quite figured out how to use my intelligence towards being competent at dealing with reality.