Strangely due to customs stratos because of his height is actually reveared and believed to be some reincarnation of an immortal hero king who
To go into further detail on their culture the varengi (stratos's race) believe any of their kind who has some oddity about them be it stunted growth deformities etc since the hero king in their legends was deformed himself
Stratos while serious about his peoples way of life and proudly takes up the mantle given he finds the story silly and thinks of it as little more than a hollow story just to keep the fleeting hopes of his critically endangered people up
So you could argue stratos is a little on the pessimistic side with a slight dash of cynicism