Would you have been suspicious?

[Kuruharan]

Otherwise I’ll just have to accept that evil is smarter than good (which I don’t want to).

Depends on how you define "smarter." At being manipulative and forcing their will on others then yes I would say the villians were smarter. On the other hand, they all came to bad ends and all their scheming ultimately failed, so in the end it did not benefit them.

I am a very suspicious person by nature, so I would have suspected Saruman, and everyone else, before we even got off the boat. However, I probably would have made a poor Gandalf.

During his conversation with Gimli, Aragorn, and Legolas after his return he says,
"How could I do so when I have councilled my friends to suspect even their own hands when dealing with the Enemy." He probably was not a terribly trusting person either. However, Saruman had been essentially the leader of the war against Sauron up until his defection. You generally don't expect the leader to defect to his enemy.