Evolved creatures are somewhat handicapped by needing to make only incremental changes from one form to the next, and needing to not be eaten by predators while

Evolved creatures are somewhat handicapped by needing to make only incremental changes from one form to the next, and needing to not be eaten by predators while doing so. That isn't strong evidence of what would be required by a well engineered system with none of those constraints. Intelligence is not the end of goal of evolution, it is a by product.