The thing about Jason Mendoza in the good place is that he’s the only character on the show with any emotional intelligence, like, period.
The others might all be smart in their own ways and him really, really uneducated (i’d call him stupid, but after the vague jokes about his schooling i think this is meant to be commentary on how him not being fortunate enough to be given a good education contributed to him ending up in the bad place) but, he’s actually really, really emotionally intelligent!
He helps the others sort through their own emotional baggage without seeming to even realise he’s doing it, and he picks up on it and confronts Tahani on her bad behaviour against him. He didn’t have the book smarts at the time to label exactly what it was that she was doing that was unfair to him, but he Did know she was being out of line. He’s also, in general, a kind human being, he’s not cruel or mean like any of the others, he may be self-centered at times, but never mean (which Eleanor and Tahani can definitely be).
The other three humans, plus Janet and Michael, have no clue about emotions! The blanket statement that Jason is stupid in all areas is flawed, because if we stopped measuring that standard by book smarts or street smarts, Jason would leave them in the dust because he’s actually in touch with his own and others’ emotions, and they genuinely need his emotional compass to move forward imo.
