But he said "sorry" (somewhat) politely and pulled the "we are fast growing startup"-card .. so you are obligated to forgive him?

It seems quite clear to me (as a third party to this) that the lack of communication w.r.t. this behavior was intentional. Trying to fix a mistake without having to admit having made it in the first place...

Civil discussion is going to collapse even further if bad actors don't stop with the dark patterns.