I feel like that entire argument is really forced in this episode, and something I just rolled my eyes at.
First of all, the 24th century Federation is shown repeatedly valuing peace with its neighbors even when it seems tactically unsound, creates divisions among Federation citizens, and means peace with people that have just murdered thousands of your citizens. Instead of arrogance, there's an argument to be made the Federation/Starfleet policy of the time was naive (i.e., Sisko's anger about "it's easy to be a saint in paradise" is based on approaching the situation realistically and comes after Admiral Nechayev insisting that "opening a dialogue" with angry Federation colonists that just blew up a Cardassian ship should be possible).
The entire prelude to the Dominion War, and part of the ability for the Dominion to take advantage of the Cardassians, is set up by the Federation pursuing a peace treaty with the Cardassians that the Cardassians are never shown really abiding by. And through their actions the Cardassians weaken themselves more and more by being beligerent to the point the Founders could use someone like Dukat to take power. Even as the Cardassians were caught smuggling weapons into the DMZ, the Federation does everything possible to preserve the peace treaty and stop the Maquis. Even at the worst points of the Dominion War, if the Female Founder had honestly offered a peace agreement, do people really believe the Federation would have slapped her hand away and chose more war? (e.g., During DS9's "In the Pale Moonlight." Senator Vreenak mentions the Federation had offered "peace feelers" to the Dominion.)
Secondly, let's be honest. Even at the technological level of the 23rd/24th century Federation, if they had decided to, the Federation could have glassed every single Cardassian/Dominon planet they came across with photon/quantum torpedoes. For that matter, so could have the Klingons and Romulans. Or openly used bio weapons (instead of Section 31 doing it secretly). Even if the Genesis Device didn't work to create stable planets, Starfleet still had access to a technology in the 23rd century that could have been used as a weapon of mass destruction, since it would destroy the biosphere of any planet it was used against. If we approach this from the idea that the Federation of the 23rd/24th century couldn't be trusted not to use this super-tech, why would they care if the new planets created out of it rapidly age and explode afterwards if your enemy and their homeworld are erased from existence?
Finally, I thought Jinaal's test made no sense based on its stated purpose. Let me put two people's lives in danger by me purposely planting the seed in their head to get their "phasers ready" so they can antagonize some innocent creature while I stand in judgment of how humane they are? The very test says more about Jinaal than it does Book, Burnham, or the Federation. I also feel like that if you put this episode and SNW's "A Quality of Mercy" next to each other, you get a strange contrast of values. Pike's actions would be in keeping with Jinaal's test, of putting the phasers down against someone different than yourself. But you also see how that blows up in Pike's face and is the wrong answer for that situation.
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