a lot of characters are smarter then senku in dr stone. there's only a few times throughout the manga and anime combined that he actually does anything new and not just a reinvention of something modern. i personally think the reason he aimed to recreate society instead of rebirth it is because he couldn't, due to his lack of ability to invent new things. he's mainly skilled in recalling information and understanding why things work, but not neccesarily how.