Always_Ask_Questions,
“is not to give an impression of a t ch when you’re not behaving like one.”
This strikes me as one of the most powerful arguments to wear a hat and jacket that I have ever read. If the behavior doesn’t match the clothes, change the behavior, not the clothes!
“I don’t think any outsider makes a difference between brims.”
It also doesn’t make a difference to an outsider how much Torah knowledge you have or not. A non-Jew on the street is not going to ask you a complicated shaila on ribbis or kashrus. And if they did you could let them know you’re not a “T Ch”. Many who don’t have any experience with frum Jews think that anyone in a kippa is a rabbi, so you’re not really solving anything unless you completely hide your Jewishness.