Sure, but this wasn't first contact. They knew what the Pah Wraiths were capable of, and would lend credence to actually make sense of supposed metaphors or mystic texts, but something structured within actually history.
And less this come across as a bash session, this is literally me making connections from the Reckoning to possible outcomes rather than just accept that Sisko's sacrifice was the only option. In my opinion, based upon lore (Gasp!) Sisko and O'Brien should have been better able to work together to deal with the Pah Wraiths, rather than Sisko alone.
In that incidence, but as Farscape One stated, there was this idea that Starfleet Command was either blind or ignorant to the threat, when they literally had evidence of how to deal with these beings, and, past experience that O'Brien would have first hand awareness of.