I think you're overstating how rational Magic is. Maybe it was 10 years ago before Internet came along and changed everything, but these days everybody netdecks, brute force optimization of decks by playing a lot (online or not) beats any creativity, and number of viable deck types in a typical format got extremely limited (before JTMS/SFM ban, there was exactly 1 viable deck type in Standard, with everybody playing some variant thereof or losing).

The good old days of rogue decks stealing tournament wins are long gone. Feedback got way too fast for that.

Much larger monetary investment necessary to play competitively also stops people from doing funny things. Even the best rogue deck in Legacy needs $1000 worth of duals, FoWs, and whatnot or it will be beaten by differences in card quality - and few people are willing to spend that much on a wild shot at winning.

I'd say that these days Magic requires about as much thinking as go, chess, or any other game. Learn basics, practice a lot to avoid stupid mistakes, learn more, keep repeating until done.

There might be some lesson here. Or probably not.