it’s such a small motif but the bajoran ear grabbing thing is such an effective way of characterizing the different bajoran religious figures:
when sisko first meets kai opaka, she asks to feel his ear. he’s uncomfortable with it but she’s friendly and he’s putting his best foot forward on behalf of starfleet so he lets her.
the practice returns in the season finale where vedek winn asks to touch his ear as well, but the mannerisms are different. opaka’s friendliness and the fact that she explained the custom first made the question seem genuine; she cared about his consent and he could say no (at least on a personal level though they both knew he wouldn’t for political reasons). winn on the other hand asks as a formality; it’s obvious that she expects the answer to be yes and will be offended if she’s rebuffed.
this is then contrasted with vedek bareil in a kind of classic setup/reminder/payoff kind of thing. when sisko meets him, he notes that bareil doesn’t try to touch his ear and bareil makes a joke about winn doing it. he’s uncomfortable with the practice too and has been trying to get rid of it. so far this is a simple contrast: winn is a traditionalist and bareil is a reformer.
the payoff later in the episode adds depth to this though. winn tries to touch bareil’s ear without asking and he physically prevents her. there are a few different ways to read this: winn feels entitled to do it because he’s also bajoran, or because he’s a colleague; winn is using the tradition to assert dominance over him, knowing it makes him uncomfortable; winn was trying to emulate opaka earlier but doesn’t understand why opaka did things the way she did and by the end of the episode she’s given up. i think all of these are true on some level. regardless of the specifics, winn’s entitlement is highlighted. not only does she cling to tradition, she thinks it overrides other people’s needs and even their bodily autonomy.
