I definitely think the social aspect is sometimes the most damning. And just that whole...what you totally describe here. First that there's a resentment of people putting their minds towards social situations at all, caring about those sorts of things. It's hard not to relate that to the many metas I've read about people who definitely want to be seen as the person who can't do that, who just doesn't have that ability (even though it's really not being presented as an ability but the sign of a weaker character), or claims that fandom social groups are based around completely different things that reject all of that. Which is why it's sometimes funny to read the many things about the first part, where people talk about BNFs in fandom being those cool kids because it's like some people need that story in their lives no matter what. Like it's more about their defining themselves as being shut out by this vague concept of "cool" than whatever is really going on. Heh. Like there was that one person who did a whole history of the BNF clique and I remember it reading like it was written by some sort of alien who didn't believe people could ever become friends without it being part of some master plan.

Or also Archie and Nero Wolfe where Archie is totally the Watson character, and he doesn't share Nero's particular genius (or the crippling rigidity that goes with them) but you'd be a fool to think of Archie as dumb just because he makes that part of his persona as much as Nero makes his quirks part of his. Archie's facility with language and his ability to understand people is a form of high intelligence in himself.

I definitely think McCoy has an advantage there being a doctor, though. Doctor is a specific skill that people can appreciate while keeping within its limits.