You could try play with an illiterate character and with low intelligence then npc training is emulated on how long your character takes to get the knowledge via physical example. Being illiterate a lot of crafting is off the table, including mutagens.

Npc companions do share their recipes and do help with construction if they have the necessary skill so that could be interpreted as them offering advice in construction.

Bionics, if you can reach exodii can install the stuff with good success rate and as bionics is their baby it can be implied it is biotech or tech that is smart enough to learn based off a strict set of instructions. So you can make a case that lockpicking, safecracking and hacking can be AI assisted when installed.

Which then can be used to get past the security for primers and mutagens from labs - or with difficulty, destroying terrain. You wouldn't get what you wanted but it is a path I can imagine a low int character can take.

It is by no means perfect, but I am just trying to think how a low intelligence character could get the high level stuff in a, in my understanding, way of the lore.