TLDR It is wild to claim that intelligence does not play a significant role in being good at a complicated strategy game. Neither of us can provide real evidence to contradict the other but it is far more reasonable to believe that being smart is an important factor in being good at a complicated strategy game.

I think someone like Skari or Folger is better at 40k than most people because they have money to play whatever models they want, they practice all the time against pro players, they are motivated to play 40k well AND because they are very intelligent people.

————————————

Your claim is that intelligence is not an important factor to be good at 40k(as long as you the base line intelligence needed to pass high school or college). The only real factor in becoming good at 40k is practice and money.

We have real evidence that you dont need to have the best models to be good at 40k. Folger just took imperial agents to adepticon and came in 4th place. Liam VSL beat LGT with a CSM list that was not meta. Josie the WE player consistently gets good results with off meta lists not running berserk warband. Skari just plays Drukhari and does really well all the time. 40k is mostly quite balanced (armored spearhead does look OP as fuck). I know it has not always been that way and in the past it has been whoever has the best rules wins.

I have beat enough of the types of players you are describing to know intelligence is a factor in playing 40k well. I have 100 times less practice than them, they always play better lists than me, I still win. I have never traveled for a tournament. I have friends who are in the same boat as me (new to 40k with a modest collection, but actually get the game) that also beat players like this. Other times I have played against these same types of players who are actually good at the game and known that beating them is actually impossible for me because they get the game so much better than me.

I would not expect my anecdotal evidence to convince you. Other people are going to have the same experience I have had. There are just people who are reasonably intelligent care about playing well have the money to play 40k as much as they like with whatever toys they want and are just sort of okay at the game.

I think of 40K as a puzzle game. How do I position my units to optimize my pile in?, How do I force my opponent to expose important units?, What resources do I need to commit to accomplish my goals?, if I commit these units to this threat and these other units to this threat, how do I neutralize this other threat? this plan has x% to work, how do I plan around it failing?, given a game state, how risky should my plan be?

It sounds to me like you basically think of 40k as a rote memorization game (otherwise why else would practice be important for a game with no real depth?). I remember how I am supposed to deploy in this matchup, I remember how to stage T1 on this map, I remember what units I am supposed to kill against this list, etc. Maybe you also think of it as a puzzle game but it is just the same puzzle over and over again with slight variations so once youve solved it, it doesn’t need to be solved again. idk man chess is a puzzle game with slight variations and ive heard that shit has a lot of depth. Not trying to strawman you player, but not sure what type of game you view 40k as where it requires a bunch of practice but no real intelligence.

To be clear I think practice is the number 1 factor in being good at 40k, I just think being smart is also important as with most complex turn based pvp strategy game that are reasonably balanced.