Thinking back to this, in a way they've kind of tricked him into putting huge weight onto the number of lights. Like, yes, obviously he's maintaining his autonomy by refusing to let the Cardassians make him undermine his own senses, but they've also already succeeded in dictating that his response is so important. It might have been a stronger sign of independence to insist that there were no lights at all.

Also, while we're here, moths aren't actually attracted to light in the sense we tend to think. What's happening is that the moth's navigation depends on light being above them to help keep them upright. However, with a light source close enough that they can actually reach it, this causes them to spiral into the light. The more they try to escape, the more they curve their flight path into a spiral toward their own back. They're not like "ooo, light!", they're just really not set up to successfully fly away from it.

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