It's been funny seeing how Super Mutants get treated across the franchise.
I mean, according to the background lore, the "FEV" that creates Muties started out as a 'gene therapy' to provide immunity to a disease called the "New Plague" that was sneaking around in Pre-War USA, but once the military got involved it was pushed more into becoming yet another "supersoldier" program.
And in Fallout 1 and 2 and NV, only a small portion of Muties came out 'stupid' (although they seem to have been more prone to various mental illnesses), heck probably the second smartest NPC in Fallout 1 was a Super Mutant, and the events of Fallout 1 should've meant there wasn't any more Super Mutants being 'made'. But no, now in the Bethesda Era we just have Orkz even if it means re-retconning another batch of the FEV into another location despite it having been a Mega Top Secret military project pre-war.
Bonus fun fact: the worst Disease added by SS2 Chapter 2 is said "New Plague" - by the stats, it's worse than even the original Black Plague (which wiped out somewhere between 1/3 and 2/3 of Europe back in the day), which fits what little lore we have about it