I think whether or not mistrust of the police is justified may be a separate issue from the totality-of-the-circumstances tally. In many places, the police act illegally on a routine basis, and this makes mistrust completely logical, but your actions still inform the legality of the police's actions at least to some extent.

I agree with you on this: trusting the police is different from whether or not their actions are letter-of-the-law legal. To clarify: I was riffing on the one slice of the comment, and not arguing with the main thrust of your point.