Have you actually taken the exam or looked into a sample test?

There is no intelligence in most parts, it is just you memorizing a lot of words that you will never hear or use. Maybe you are confusing different parts of the exam.

> For non-native speakers, it's just a test of how well they learned English, and nobody in admissions expects them to score as well as native speakers.

That's different test/s. Programs will require TOEFL/IELTS for that purpose.

Yes, I have taken the test in question.

The vocabulary is not that difficult. If you regularly read literature as a child and adolescent, you will know most of the vocab in the test. Most people consider reading and having a decent vocabulary as signs of education and intelligence.

Beyond that, the verbal GRE is mostly about making connections between different words and concepts - just a test of reasoning ability.

TOEFL/IELTS are for a completely different purpose. That's why I said that the verbal GRE is only really meaningful for native speakers. You wouldn't expect someone who learned English as a second language to have the same command over the language as a native speaker. That doesn't mean that they're not smart.

There is intelligence. You could take just a few days to prepare to get 95th to 99th percentile while other people take 6 months to prepare.