understanding that charlie and mac are not simply ignorant, childish, stupid victims of circumstance who have been manipulated or tricked into doing "evil" things, but rather have the same base desires (wealth, influence, respect, acceptance, adoration) as a result of being ostracized and either play along or facilitate similar plans for their explicit benefit is not only the ultimate sunny litmus test, but also imperative to understanding any and all of the characters within the show.
dennis and dee are often more blatant about what they want and how they intend to achieve it; they pride themselves on their intelligence and cunning, but are very easily duped because they overestimate themselves and others' unwillingness and inability to disrupt their plans.
charlie and mac are not college educated, and so we, the audience, tend to perceive lower intelligence and incompetence. this isn't true (it rarely is, true intelligence cannot be effectively measured by academic testing), the four of them simply have different strengths and weaknesses. mac is the one initially designated "the brains" of the operation.
dennis is good at predicting others' behaviour based on existing data, but that requires everything staying predictable, he's terrible at problem solving in the moment. this is why, especially in early seasons, mac is the ideas man, dennis works out the finer details, and charlie is their "wildcard" last resort. i would argue charlie is the most socially adept of them all (in that he has the inherent ability to read people and situations without relying on data, like dennis), he is able to work with whatever he's given, but far more capable of handling a situation where things start going off-script than dennis. he is likely going to come off as strange and confusing, but also for the most part harmless (unlike dennis and mac) which gives him a unique advantage. he also cares the least about other people's perception of himself or the gang, and he'll often just let things stand, even if people are wrong (which Also works to his advantage).
both charlie and mac utilize the fact that they are frequently underestimated and believed to be Too Stupid to be conniving, underhanded or premeditated to their advantage relatively often. playing dumb works when you are expected to be blunt, forthcoming and simple. it also happens to trick a lot of people into believing that these two stumble into things that they set up intentionally, especially if they aren't working together, and thus not spelling it out to the audience.
mac is the most socially inept of the gang, cannot or does not attempt to gauge reactions or take nonverbal cues, understand his friends beyond idealized versions of them, and his individualism is an additional hurdle because he doesn't want to share credit, he wants to shock and wow everyone with his own personal feat of strength/bravery/wit, etc. even in the absence of direct competition. dee also (for obvious reasons) falls into a similar trap when she sees an opportunity to bail and screw over the guys or sabotage them and come out on top.
what actually sets the twins apart from charlie and mac is that their alliance is effective, not because of their combined super intelligence, but because they'll set aside their usual rivalry and work together. dennis and dee are particularly knowledgeable of each others' strengths and weaknesses because of this ongoing half-century rivalry, and so when it's not being used to push each others' buttons, it's just as easy for them to use all of that to synergize.
dennis recognizes that the easiest way to sabotage anyone is to reintroduce that competition and highlight the disagreements between them. he can typically manage to put this aside; the weak link of the twins is usually dee, because she wants to screw dennis over, wants to be accepted by the rest of the gang, dennis already has the latter, which can easily facilitate the former.
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