[DS9] Shouldn't Garak be equally condemned as Dukat for Cardassian attrocities?

I'm on something like my fifth rewatch, and a friend of mine is really loving Gul Dukat. This sent me on a spiral of reading forums and watching some key Dukat scenes by myself. I do this, beacuse our watch of DS9 occurs at a Snail's pace. We are on Season 3 and began in the Summer of 2023. I like both Dukat and Garak very much as characters. I don't care for the pah wraiths arc, but only because I dislike it's storytelling. I don't think it "blackwashes" Dukat like some viewers do. But reading the views people have of Dukat and the internal logic expressed, I'm surprised that the same level of condemnation isn't directed at Garak.

Word of mouth tells that the showrunners in the 1990s were overwhelmed with how positively Dukat was being perceived and were concerned, since his past is one of basically a concentration camp commander on a planetary scale. This [supposedly because of the Writer's apprehensions] is particularily tackled in Walz, where it is mentioned like 5 million bajorans died during his watch in the occupation. The total number is 15 million according to memory alpha, which also classifies the Cardassians' actions Genocidal. This is something people point to in later discussions in condemning Dukat. And I would say anything he does later is tame compared with him being complicit in the occupation.

What interests me is that Garak is seemingly never held to the same standard. Superficially I understand why you wouldn't. Garak wasn't a planetary governor of a planet being genocided. I would however claim he is equally complicit as Dukat. The occupation of Bajor was official Cardassian state policy. Obivously merely following orders doesn't excuse either. Dukat could've resigned and opposed the policy but chose his own career and wellbeing. But since it was state policy, not only Dukat, but everyone working for the military and state is responsible and culpable for the occupation. The Cardassian state is the institution collectively responsible and Garak's intelligence work clearly helped uphold the power of the Cardassian state. But if we want to more directly link him to the genocide, in The Wire all of his stories place him working on Bajor during the occupation.

Let's look at this through historical analogy. If we take the USSR during Stalin's purges, you should equate a regional governor and high ranking NKVD member with equal culpability in the mass murder that went on. Same in Nazi-Germany, Mao's China, Apartheid South Africa, whatever. What interests me is that I've never seen this perspective of Garak floated. I found this thread, but the conversation it created is merely from a perspective of virtue ethics and Garak's individual methods during the series.

Obviously the show portrais Garak in a lot better light. And many things he instigates, like the events during In the Pale moonlight are treated with massive amounts of naunce. Further more he is someone whose actions are a delight to follow, while Dukat is more of an entertaining antagonist. But it still is wild to me how much more leeway Garak is given in the fandom. As a very formalist viewer, I'm now interested in what key factors and choices have led to this (in my view) great disparity.