ooo… I dunno. there are a lot of factors to consider. The Ocampa situation, the interactions with the Kazon… Sisko & Co.'s proficiency in dealing with The Caretaker and his tech…

honestly? all I know is that it would have gone very differently. possibly differently enough that the Caretaker’s Array’s dself-destruct might not have gotten damaged, or, another way, that they didn’t retrieve their crewmembers from Ocompa, or were killed by the Kazon…

I would like to have seen that play out, though.