The Die Is Cast: Why Sisko chose to disobey orders, and why Odo chose to stay on DS9

There be spoilers for those, who haven't watched these episodes.

I read a review of "The Die is Cast", an episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", and the comments that accompanied the said review.

Two very widespread issues for many people who watched the episode, are Sisko disobeying orders to not go into the Gamma Quadrant to retrieve Odo, and Odo choosing to return to the station and not join the Great Link and return to his people -- something that he'd wanted to do for a long time.

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re Sisko not returning --

Commenter DLPB wrote, that one of the most serious crimes that a captain can commit, is neglect of comrades.

Furthermore, Odo is a Changeling, the nature of which makes him a very valuable asset; his presence on the station is essentially Bajor's life insurance policy, and Sisko knows that very well. So does Odo, [spoiler—] especially when he chooses to stay on DS9 after the Dominion and Cardassians much later overran the station's defenses, and Sisko was forced to leave.

Lovok's reveal is the reason Odo finally chose instead to return to DS9, because he understood the danger that the Dominion posed to Bajor and the entire Alpha Quadrant. We should not forget, that Odo is an officer of Bajor.

Were he to join the Great Link right then and there, his adoptive home would have been left completely defenseless, and the other shapeshifters would have then been free to work their magic on DS9.

Because Odo's presence on Deep Space Nine meant, that the Dominion really could not use the station and Bajor as a springboard into the Alpha Quadrant (they could not attack either for fear of hitting Odo by accident), and therefore had to go past these places to use Dukat and the Cardassians to expand their galactic domination. This essentially bought some time for everyone. And the Alpha Quadrant.

Of course, Fake Lovok didn't like it, and that's why he chose to use the narrower definition of 'no Changeling has harmed another', in that he decided not to notify the Jem'Hadar to not shoot at (or even provide cover to) the runabout carrying Odo and Garak, who were attempting to escape the mêlée of a very intense space battle.

There's a high probability, that Odo has by then realised Fake Lovok's hypocrisy about the 'no harm' adage, because the runabout was repeatedly shot at, and lost its shields.
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Many episodes later, we can actually see how palpable Odo's importance is during Dukat's occupation of Terek Nor, as Odo's presence alone causes Weyoun to defer to Odo (because like any other changeling, he's like a god to the Vorta) — much to the chagrin of Dukat and the annoyance of the Female Shapeshifter, who finally arrives in "Sacrifice of Angels" to neutralise Odo, and by proxy, the resistance movement on the station.
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Edit: This post was initially published on 02.09.2016 03:33 UTC +0300 (01.09.2016 19:33 UTC -5). A minute or so later, I posted much of this text in a comment here.