I can’t help but feel that if I gave someone critical feedback and their first reaction was to take up a visually defensive posture and repeat my “accusation” back to them, my next move would be to seriously undermine the point of the exercise by attempting to walk back what I’d said as much as possible. More so if that person was in a position of authority relative to me

Not sure that your listening posture is ideal here, and you do seem to indicate that it’s for your benefit, not theirs.

(You may consider this NoBigDeal feedback)