My point is that it's possible that Ilya was not the driving force behind Sam's firing, even if he ultimately voted for it. If this is the case, it makes Ilya's non-apology apology a lot less weird.

It's possible, although contradicted by Brockman's statement, that Ilya voted merely to remove Brockman's board seat, and then was in the minority on the Altman vote.

I doubt this is what happened, but the reporting that Brockman was ousted from his board seat after Altman, and wasn't present in the board meeting that ousted Altman, doesn't make much sense either.