It sound like the protagonist one one hand gets annoyed when people speak to him using over polite language, and on the other, uses these experiences to build up a picture that helps him understand something. The final three source sentences could read as "maybe it was worse to pay so much attention each time. Or maybe not; I had made some encouraging findings."
Of course the register of this example would need to be adapted to fit in with your existing translation, but I think that's what the author is trying to say.