Nerds will be Nerds, I guess. Really, i see that contrary impulse in myself pretty clearly, and all too often...
Yeah, a lot of the time, the people wanting to be contrary simply want to be asked, "Hey, are you okay with this.", then they respond with something passive-aggressively snarky, the DM then starts to explain why/make some concessions, and that player will then hold up their hands and say, "Seems fine, no need to pay attention to me."
But having that conversation at the beginning of a campaign kills so many bad conversations later on in the game. When that player then says 10 games in, "I really wanted X!" and the DM says, "I literally told you I was going to give you X and you told me no!"...or finding out that a player did want an explanation or a concession and without that, they're annoyed enough to be upset, but insufficiently so to tell the DM.