The first step of an apology is admitting the misdeed. Here they are explicitly not acknowledging that what they did was wrong, they are still asserting that this was a misunderstanding.

Even their choice of wording ("We are very sorry to hear this concern.") is the blend of word fuckery that conveys the idea they care nothing about what they did or why it negatively affected others.

>We are very sorry to hear this concern.

..."Because if we're lucky tomorrow, we won't have to deal with questions like yours ever again." --Firesign Theater, "I Think We're All Bozos on the Bus"

> they're proving the jaw-droppingly obvious.

Yet we do nothing about it? I wouldn't call that jaw-droppingly obvious, if anything, without this, I'm pretty sure that anyone would argue that it would be caught way before making it way into stable.

I've literally never come across an open source project that was thought to have a bullet proof review process or had a lack of people making criticisms.

What they do almost universally lack is enough people making positive contributions (in time, money, or both).

This "research" falls squarely into the former category and burns resources that could have been spent on the latter.