Pattern aside, Mesaana is a woman thousands of years out of her own time. Egwene is a prodigy of her time and has had the benefit of having many influential women mold her. Mesaana's 300 years are practically meaningless in the politics of WoT ... She has less experience than Egwene in many ways. We heard some of this from Aran'gar who mused that the other Forsaken don't know these modern people. Mesaana's mistakes revolved around her force fitting things to her way of thinking with no regard to modern realities.

Think about how lost you would be if you were sent back in time to Ancient Egypt. Sure some of your life experience would give you some wisdom and your knowledge of technology may even make you seem like a god to these "primitive" people, but trying to insert yourself into their political machinations you'd be hopelessly out of your depth. Even a PHD in ancient Egyptian studies would be out of their depth.