My explanation of his mentality actually came straight from Tolkiens letters on the subject. His manipulation of the elves with the Annatar persona and the satanic conversion of Númenor also shows that he’s much more of a skilled palpatine type manipulator than a Darth Vader type. Also one of two 1v1s (if Celebrimbor even was a 1v1 forgot tbh) he won was a literal song battle. He loses all his other fights and that’s why he has to rely on his intelligence to overcome his enemies. It’s interesting that the viler and more “evil” Sauron gets he also becomes far more stupid, not even believing anyone would want to destroy the ring because he eventually thought everyone (Gandalf, Aragorn, Galadriel etc) had the same exact motivations he did.