Given these two extremes .. maybe. But more common seems to be "a brilliant asshole" vs "a competent nice person" and then I would never take the brilliant one.

Given these two extremes .. maybe. But more common seems to be "a brilliant asshole" vs "a competent nice person" and then I would never take the brilliant one. I have seen the effect of just one toxic person on a team and it wasn't pretty. Such people can quickly demoralize everyone around them and bring product development in (small) companies to a halt.