My super controversial Liar Game take is that Nao was never stupid.
Nope. Not even in the first round. Look, Nao is managing living on her own, helping to look after a dying parent, and attending university, which together speaks to a decent level of functioning in the everyday world up until something unexpected happens to her.
Nao's decision to give Fujisawa her money wasn't good a good one, but all the factors leading up to that moment are explained and make sense in isolation, and in fact, were probably meant to mirror how even fairly intelligent people can and do get scammed in real life.
(Someone mentioned in my post breaking down that decision that it mirrors what Akiyama does to Fujisawa later, and that's intentional. Taking advantage of Nao's weakness didn't render Fujisawa immune to the same situation when it was his turn.)
Nao absolutely does get some amazing character development later on, but it's not and never was about a monumental change in intelligence. She always remains about as intelligent as the average player in the game, albeit with a much broader goal than they have. Instead her character development is more about gaining confidence (in both herself and in navigating the games), new perspectives, and new tools. My favorite way of looking at Nao's character development as the series progresses is that she becomes more herself.
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