I have to say you have made a good choice by coming to the Private Flying section, you are much more likely to get a balanced and reasoned set of opinions here...
It is true that being a regular line pilot would not be particularly intellectually challenging for obvious reasons and short of pulling off some amazing emergency landing the work of pilots goes unnoticed most of the time unless you screw up big time. That said in many airlines time to command for example can depend on aptitude and potential so there is in the possibility of demonstrating personal merit.
However if you are a more intellectual type then the prospect later on of getting into management and training might appeal and that would bring some intellect into the role. At the higher echelons of aviation there is intellect involved in designing procedures, safety philosophy, better understanding of the human/machine interface and a lot of other issues. That would be a long way off though and I have no idea whether you would be interested in that sort of thing.
Finally as far as simply becoming a pilot as quickly and efficiently as possible if you want to end up with a UK short haul airline you can do no worse than CTC Wings. Many will disagree with that but in my view if you can finance it (normally with a BBVA loan) it is a proven route to the RHS that many have taken.