How is this not the worst episode of DS9?

Because allamaraine exists.

And that Kira hut episode
You beat me to it.
I knew someone was going to say that.
Haha! Some DS9 writer read The Player of Games and decided they wanted to make that, and bunged it up horribly.
Honestly the worst thing is they never brought this group back. They could have at least tried to redeem the story.
- Star Trek canon is littered with abandoned species that could have had interesting follow-up stories. These were far from the most interesting.

Move along home with that "Rumpelstiltskin" nonsense, you.

Well played

I love how it's O'brien who's really afraid.

TBH, O'brien's been on the Enterprise long enough to know that when weird, seemingly powerful creatures start talking to you, you should be very, very careful. Even if they present themselves as storybook characters.
- He is also second most likely to punch Q in the face.

Because you get to see Odo herding animals and Bashir getting extremely embarrassed.

and Bashir getting extremely embarrassed

To be fair, that's his default state.

How is this not the worst episode of DS9?

Two Jadzias. And one of them is horny AF.

Clearly, the best episode.

Never mind the ~500 year age gap between Dax and Bashir.

... Anyone else first remember this actor as Samson from Carnivale?

glad this was the first comment I saw, RIP to an amazing show

It's got my vote.

I watched this for the first time yesterday. Going through DS9 starting from Season 1.

I don't hate it, but it can be skipped as it has nothing to do with anything after. Actually the more I think about it the less I like it. I do like how the aliens are basically explorers just like Starfleet just different. That's a spoiler but honestly who cares lol

To give some context: DS9 is from the 90s, where series were basically stand alone episodes with occasional two parters.

That said, DS9 is one of the first series that break that. Not in the first season maybe and I'm not going to spoil you but there are archs that are returned to in several episodes, things that change for good and stories that expend the 90s two parter by alot.

This isn't much compared to modern standards and you don't have to like it, but it's not as bad as the first season suggests and it's progressive for its time. Maybe that helps you to appreciate the series but maybe it doesn't, take it or leave it.
- I've seen a bunch of DS9 when it was fresh on TV especially when Worf joined in but there are a lot of missing episodes I haven't seen yet. So the overall arching plot is known to me.
  
  It's these weird one off bottle episodes that are new to me.
- I think the serialized format it eventually took on is what has kept it from wider syndication. Most of the time shows are in syndication, the network picks and chooses the most popular episodes, whereas with DS9, it would be very hard to skip through a lot of the episodes without making it hard to follow. Essentially, it is far more suited for streaming services.
There is one small thing linking this episode to the rest - Sisko's baseball. The alien posing as Buck Bokai gives Sisko the ball that spends the rest of the series on his desk. I also actually quite like all of the interactions between Sisko and Bokai.
- So that IS his baseball? I wasn't 100% but I did wonder for a second. Neat.
A lot of Season 1 is skippable if you feel like it. I'm sure there's a website out there with essential Season 1 episodes, but they didn't really know what they were doing with the show yet.

Because Keone Young is a fucking treasure.

Besides, the bottle episode "The Sound Of Her Voice" takes this award.

Really? I very much like “the sound of her voice”. For me “Profit and Lace” is by far the worst. No competition.
- Seriously, Profit and Lace managed to be misogynistic, misandristic, and transphobic all at the same time.
- What? Profit and Lace is funny. So goofy and silly, I can't not laugh.
- I just find that the A story detracts from the Dominion Wars storyline that everything had been building up to, and the B story is just uninteresting with Jake following Quark's antics to distract Odo with Kira. At least 'Profit And Lace" had some comedy in it to make up for things.

Which episode has the most Jake screentime? That’s the worst one.

Incorrect. The episode with Jake having the most screen time is The Visitor and that episode is a gem.
- Since that's a cheat, there's also Progress, where Nog and Jake end up with the self-sealing stem bolts and the yamak sauce. I think it's pretty amusing anyway.
- When I saw the Candyman in the opening I thought it was going a different direction
- Probably an unpopular opinion but I did not like that one. The drama felt super cheap since I knew that Sisko had plot armour and therefore the resolution to the episode would need to be some time travel nonsense where none of it mattered.
- Wait a minute, that’s not Cirroc Lofton, it’s Tony Todd.
  
  It’s a fake.
- Ugh. It would be a gem to me if it weren't directly after the Klingons and Worf entering the story. It's like a mixtape that starts off with two Metallica songs amd goes straight into Joni Mitchell.
Quite bold of you to slander one of the most critically acclaimed future authors like that.
- On the other hand, quite bold of Star Trek to imagine a future where people read things instead of watched cat videos.
I feel like Sisko is a much worse offender tbh. Whoever played Jake just did too good a job of immitating Sisko.
- Sure Ben Sisko lied, cheated, bribed men to cover up the crimes of other men. He’s even an accessory to murder. But Jake is so whiny, so I think I can live with it… And if I had to watch Deep Space 9 all over again… I would skip Jake heavy episodes. So I will learn to use the skip button, because I can live with not rewatching every episode.

I must have slept through this one. Can someone tell me which season/episode this is? I don't remember it at all

If Wishes Were Horses, S1E16 It's the source of Sisko's desk baseball.

why is Rumpelstielchen looking like Sir Anthony Hopkins?

I think you are confused. Rumpelstiltskin is way older than SAH. SAH looks like Rumpelstiltskin.
Rumpelstielchen looks like Andy Serkis to me.