The difference is that the short man in the suit has professional liability insurance.
If someone tries some dumb shit and gets a pavement facial Moama can almost certainly beat an assault charge, but civil injury claims are notoriously bad if you’re rich. An ambulance chaser will offer to take the case for free and be such a pest that its worth $100k to Moama to make him fuck off.
The little guy can sit there in court, dispassionately explaining that he felt his client was in danger and let the ambulance chaser argue with an insurance company (and we all know how much they love cutting cheques).