You lost me at "junk heap."

Sorry you're so averse to negative descriptions of the average person's philosophy.

There is no conscious choice available to a layperson ignorant of philosophy and logic

Yes there is, they can choose what music, TV, movies, videos etc to buy/view/play.

and such ways of life are perfectly copacetic with small-enough communities

Do you mean communities where the leader knows about philosophy and can order people around?

If anything, it is the careful thinker who is more shackled by self-doubt

It's reasonable to doubt certain things, but if learning increases your self doubt than you're doing it wrong.

better understood as the Dunning-Kruger effect, but Ayn Rand has made it obvious she never picked up any primary literature on cognitive science

She was associated with Nathaniel Branden, a well regarded psychologist. Cognitive Science is a relatively new field.

so it's not surprising to see her confusion here.

I don't think she's confused, she's saying something you disagree with. If you think you've refuted it, I think you're the confused one.