I know Ordell is supposed to be dumb but.....

I thought so too the first time I watched it ... but, upon the second viewing, it occurred to me that having the lights off didn't effect the way the ending went down. If every light in the office was on, the outcome would have been the same. Now, if having the lights off hid the cops so they could get the drop on Ordell, then I would have had a problem with it - but that wasn't the case.
In fact, it probably wasn't that far out of a way to set the meeting up. It was after hours, dark and its possible that the lights being on may have attracted the attention of some cop who might have come cruising up the street on his rounds, making sure all was quiet - nothing odd or suspicions going down. A cop who knows his 'beat' gets to know the habits of those along it and if Max kept regular hours, closed up shop every evening at the same time, never left a 'nightlight' on etc., it might have stood out, looked unusual to an observant passing cop- think 'The GFII' when the beat cop walks into the bar wondering why the 'open' lights weren't on - 'Hey xyz, ya open or not ...?". What is missing though is Ordell not asking Max 'Why are the lights all off ?' to which Max would reply 'I thought it was a good idea - we don't want a passing cop to come walking through the door, see your gangsta looking a** standing here looking out of place ... could complicate things, no ?" (or something similar :-). In fact, other than for this scenario, I don't see why Jackie would have kept the lights off - its not like the other 3 weren't well hidden or couldn't have been easily discovered by Ordell had he decided to give the place the once over.
I agree that it was out of character for a seasoned outlaw like Ordell to just go walking into a dark room like he did, no doubt. But it wasn't a 'convenient' cheap way to make sure the ending worked out as it did. He wasn't surprised/jumped/attacked for this particular stupid move like say Tippi Hedren in 'The Birds' when she opened the attic door and was immediately set upon by the birds -now THAT was a stupid move written into the story line (contrivance) to set up the next gory attack scene.
I also wondered why QT bothered with that long detailed phone message from Max on Jackies answering machine ... land line, cell phone and beeper. Unless those numbers have some other meaning that I didn't catch, what was the point ?