A lot of bad things are said about Numenoreans, especially just before the fall. But at least they knew that boats float because of buoyancy, not some stupid thing about them looking up while rocks look down. In some ways, they were better than the elves of Valinor.
Tolkien’s backstories were all about every elf, dwarf, man, and evil critters in the world fighting all the time, including against each other (War of the Kin Strife, etc), very much in the traditions of Nordic sagas. :^)