That brings up a bit of the real world I am familliar with.
Large organisations are prone to reward compliance to the rules , old organisations tend to have a very large rulebook.
Often the guys that get ahead are not so well adapted to the real world as they are familiar with the rules. Intelligence can help a person get ahead by understanding the rules , but this is a certain amount of intelectual effort and time and work devoted to the rules themselves and not devoted to coping with nature , or any new thing.
Someone with a penchant for improvasation,a talent for invention may actually be at a disadvantage to someone equally talented whose talent is complyance.
I don't think Guy was unrealistic in that way, and I can see a good excuse for most of the senior officers introduced to the story , as products of a very large and very old organisation , to seem kinda dull.