That's somewhat distinct from intelligence.

I'm not sure it is. Intelligence is at least very roughly a capacity to optimize, and while intelligent people may fail to optimize in everyday situations (and still be called intelligent), I don't see any real real difference between a straightforward exercise of intelligence (working out a proof or something) and a situation like this. It's just a matter of knowing what you have available to you, and what you can do with those resources to best and most efficiently achieve an end. ETA: But agreed that one difference is that working out a proof is typically much more demanding then obscuring a door.

In my experience, situations like the one Eliezer was in are thrilling, in the way vaulting around a children's play structure can feel thrilling. They're experiences of mastery in circumstances very like those in which we've experienced being helpless. It's really fun to be smart, strong, and mature. It's the feeling of being an adult, next to which the joys of childhood play are kind of a joke. It's not therefore the joy of real accomplishment (munchkinism mostly doesn't matter), but it is an avenue into it. If there's a rationality trick here, it's getting people hooked enough on the feelings of munchkinism, while keeping them from being satisfied with trivial exercises of it.