Your example was flawed-- it showed a "victim" of a policy complaining about its violation.
What about the pax next to you that doesn't know about engineering. They're a nervous flier to begin with and they look at you disobeying the rules of the airline, which they think are there for safety reasons. This causes them to get nervous, elevated heart rate, etc. They're not the type to say anything as they don't like altercations, but they are really nervous about you breaking a safety rule. Their flight is less enjoyable because of your activity.
What about that victim?