One can argue malice can be controlled with incentives at some level, though.
I think you have things backwards. Being dumb is the default. It takes ability and effort and help to get smarter. Animals and children are dumber than us. Do you think they realize it?
Perversely many who are dumb are trapped thinking they are not dumb:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effec...
A dumb person (like a dumb child or animal) are what they are one should not attribute malice. Better to try to see things from their point of view and perhaps help them be smarter. This is what I try to do.
Your other remarks are 100% just the point above was sticking out hence my comment.
Especially when power, violence, money, or sex are involved.
I feel that stupidity is evil in the same way as that a shark might be perceived as evil. You could explain it away as "It's not their fault, it's in their nature, they don't know better" but if it's in their nature to cause people harm, if anything, it makes the label more applicable from my perspective.
That is to say some of the incompetent are so incompetent they can’t distinguish between their incompetence and an actual expert. This is exhibited very publicly in some contestants of the American Idol genre of shows.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effec...
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/critical-thinking/dunning-...
I posit that anyone who uses DK unironically is actually committing to the DK-paradox, something I'll leave you to define for yourself.
IMO, Hanlon's razor "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity" is a narrative which was created to condition the masses into accepting being conned repeatedly.
On the topic, I subscribe to Grey's law "Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice" so I see idiots as malicious. In the very best case, idiots in positions of power are malicious for accepting the position and thus preventing someone more competent from getting it. It really doesn't matter what their intent is. Deep down, stupid people know that they're stupid but they let their emotions get in the way, same emotions which prevent them from getting smarter.