that's just self preservation mate. I've been lucky that i've never come across anyone that could do me some real damage but if i did I'd be much more wary of what i did and how i reacted than with someone who i didn't feel as threatened by.

walking away without your "pride" isn't such a bad thing. trust me and this is coming form someone who's been in more fights and incidents than i really should have. if you can, walking away is the thing to do. no one really gives a shit how much you are apart from yourself.

as far as "switching off" the want to avoid trouble, it's not really a case of switching it off as just powering through it. when i box i sure as hell don't like getting hit but i still get in the ring and do it, once i'm in there i don't have much choice but to hit back...
this is a figurative analogy of course.

seriously though you walked away fine as did everyone else, think about that outcome and then the possible outcomes if you'd powered through and did something just to be macho and keep your pride.

being able to handle yourself is great but not everyone can, some think they can when they can't and at the end of the day, the only important thing is that you're ok and more often than not, that's a result of you not escalating incidents trying to put up a front.