... it would be kind of funny if a person who is about to be balefired could actually sense it well before it happens, due to, as you say, the temporal nature of balefire.

For example, suppose Rand balefired Rahvin back in time 30 minutes, at the end of FoH. And, 25 minutes before the actual event occurred, Rahvin had some sort of BF premonition - "Aw crap, I'm going to be balefired in a few minutes."

Those last few minutes of your life would be a real downer, just waiting to get zapped!