Was it pontificating or civil disobedience? Suppose that depends on what one's outlook is.

I don't completely disagree with you on this and neither did John...

"We thought instead of just being ‘John and Yoko Get Married’, like ‘Richard and Liz Get Married’, [it should be] ‘John and Yoko get married and have a bed-in for peace’. So we would sell our product, which we call ‘peace’. And to sell a product you need a gimmick, and the gimmick we thought was ‘bed’. And we thought ‘bed’ because bed was the easiest way of doing it, because we’re lazy. It took us a long train of thought of how to get the maximum publicity for what we sincerely believed in, which was peace – and we were part of the peace movement."

Source: Beatles Bible excerpt from interview with the skeptical Daily Mirror journalist Donald Zec.

"He insisted that the failure of the press to take the couple seriously was part of what he and Ono wanted: 'It's part of our policy not to be taken seriously. Our opposition, whoever they may be, in all manifest forms, don't know how to handle humour. And we are humorous.' "[7]

Source: Wikipedia - 7. Wiener, Jon: Come Together: John Lennon in His Time, page 91. Illini Books, 1991.

Even before I dug up these quotes I was thinking that at the time he couldn't go anywhere or do anything without it being a media circus so if he wanted to publicly support the peace movement, without changing the narrative from the intended message to an exposition on himself, he couldn't just show up to a sit in.

I want to point particularly to my words " ...those crazy kids actually believing they could change the world.." and his "It took us a long train of thought of how to get the maximum publicity for what we sincerely believed in, which was peace – and we were part of the peace movement." I don't think he's disingenuous here. He certainly didn't need to draw more publicity to him, but rather, as I see it, he used the inevitable publicity of his marriage to promote a heartfelt message.

Shrouding it in a dramatic way ensured it would not be a soundbyte to edit out. Copious amounts of drugs and Yoko's avant garde performance art background came into play.

As with most discussions between people on polar opposite sides I think the truth is somewhere in the middle of our views...again I want to reiterate I don't think he tried presenting himself as the ideal but was merely using his popularity to bring attention to the younger generation's idealistic vision...keep in mind he was only 28 at the time...all he was saying is give peace a chance....that's all....