That doesn't get around the fundamental problem here. Why did you make a mistake if you're arguing that you could have not made one? Either you didn't want to make zero mistakes, or you couldn't have made zero mistakes.

> yet here you seem unable to recognize it as the obvious answer to your question.

I'm the one who is insistent that it was a mistake and that people make mistakes. You're the one insisting there's some loophole where you can both get it wrong and feel good that you could have got it right, at the same time. I'm saying that it's your position which is utter nonsense, a meaningless double-think designed to make you feel good, which reflects nothing about the world.

Like a kid saying “I ate ten hot dogs and threw up, but I could have eaten fifteen!” - nobody believes it, you couldn’t, you’re trying to save face and get credit for eating fifteen hotdogs without actually doing it.

Now, whether you can do better in future is a different matter - I’m not saying you can’t do things to avoid that mistake happening again, or learn from experience, or get better.