I see where you're coming from, but I'm still not 100% convinced. The Klingon culture, from what I've seen, is meant to be more analogous to "space barbarians". They're all about personal prowess in battle and personal martial skill. Sure, there's discipline to the Klingon military, but it's mostly to prove how tough you are as a warrior, not to ensure solid organizational structure. As you yourself pointed out, Klingon society very much revolves around the great houses, leaving them with a more tribal/feudal military structure that seems definitely pre-modern to this 21st century human. The problem then, I guess, isn't that they're “dumb jocks”, but that their society and military doesn't seem to accord with how modern warfare is conducted.

Contrast this with a culture that is much more similar to the the types of mass mobilized armies that are typical of the modern era, the Cardassians. The Cardassians have a very focused, statist militaristic society, which should be well capable of the types of leaps and bounds that you've mentioned happen during war time. The Cardassians too are expansionist, and while there's not as much infighting, their xenophobia means that they would be planning strategies against their neighbors. Furthermore, Cardassians invest quite a lot intrigue, to the point where it's one of their hats. If Klingon culture favors rapid advancement of military technology, Cardassian society should favor it doubly so. Yet we see many times throughout the series that their technology is inferior to that of the Federation (and not just to Hero Crew ships). Why? Resources, maybe? Is the intellectual climate in the Cardassian union too restrictive to allow true innovation?