I think you're missing my point in regards to the depiction of Mandarin. Your take on the character is greatly limited by your perception of Kingsley's depiction and seems to be only reliant on that, whereas mine falls squarely on the (confirmed) fact that Killian is meant to be the MCU's Mandarin (complete with martial arts and Extremis abilities), with the terrorist persona mainly acting as his proxy or "mask". In that regard, I'll retract my use of the word "decoy" since it gives a different implication compared to what the filmmakers were aiming for, in which case the supposed decoy was more of a "proxy" or channel to manipulate mass media than a literal decoy.
In that regard, my opinion still differs from yours, since yours seems to be based more on Kingsley's Mandarin whereas mine is aimed towards Pearce's character who is the ACTUAL Mandarin. So no, I don't agree with your point.
Tony's wits have been shown beyond simply using his suits in the comics you know. In situations where he's deprived of his suits, he's engaged in hand-to-hand combat/martial arts, implemented sneaking tactics and pretty much all around improvisations. This isn't something new in IM3, but something that's been done a lot in the comics, so it's actually not just something random but a part of how he's portrayed in the comics. As for Stark's armor, I don't see how their weakness are unjustified considering how Tony has been making the suits non-stop with little to no sleep. Considering that kind of mental condition, I simply interpreted his suits being much more unpolished, even more evident when you look at the treasured yet very unreliable Mark 42.
