I didn't have a problem with this. A person can be smart in one area (e.g. bio-robotic manipulation and running a business), but rubbish in another. Add in enormous of hubris, a god complex, and a bit of nihilistic "let's just see what happens to my toys" and his actions aren't absurd.
How about the crew of the Maginot's nonchalant reactions to the incapacitation of their captain by the facehugger, and the escape of the xenomorph?
Or the xenobiologist working alone, with incredibly dangerous aliens, without protective equipment, eating a sandwich, and using a specimen container which isn't shatterproof for some reason?
Or the Prodigy scientists wiping Nibs' memory, and then not telling any of the other hybrids, thus negating the point of the memory wipe?
Or the mercenary crew entering the lab on the island despite seeing the alien ticks suck the blood out of squad members in the first episode?
The first movies' characters may have been naive or cocky or greedy, but once they realized how dangerous the situation was the acted to survive. In Earth, they just kept making the worst decisions for the sake of plot contrivances.
