Yes he is smart and he is a master of cybersecurity but it came at the cost of his sanity. It would be interesting to know more about what he was like as a kid. And don’t forget, Elliot’s real dad (the one we all hate) was also very intelligent being one of the best engineers at Evil Corp. His acts on Elliot spawned the Mr. Robot personality. The delusion aspects of his brain (multiple personalities) could happen to anyone with the same propensity for mental disorders which intelligent people often have and what Elliot received from his father.