Okay but

after his implant is deactivated, do you think that it takes Garak a liiiiittle while to remember that, when someone winds up to punch him in the face, it’s actually going to hurt, instead of releasing a burst of warm fuzzies?

like there’s a moment of, “ooh, Bolian knuckle-dusters!”

then it’s “…oh, fuck, Bolian knuckle-dusters”

This is an excellent point. Garak probably does these things, with the usual bravado, and then until he learns, is like “Oh, HELL, what did I DO that?” Then acts all cool about it…