In my teenage years I really tried to master it well. I score relatively high in chess.com and lichess but I share your sentiment. If you are a chess master it doesnt mean you are super smart it means you are super good at chess.

Science confirms this in a way. Prof Andrew Huberman has a podcast episode about games in general and their effect the brain development and the takeaways:

• Games can help the brain development according to publications because of the different experiences that you will never have irl
• The positive impact was only noticed when you play a variety of games under different setups and not when you master a single game and play it a lot