NoScript has for a long time automatically changed the users default choice from: "block all Google Ads" to "block all Google Ads except NoScript ones". And, the feeling I get from that blog post is that the NoScript author still considers that program behavior acceptable. For this reason, the conflict was probably not avoidable.

So, while it was a good apology, I am not sure that the author has learned the entire lesson. Never-the-less, it is a mistake made and a mistake fixed, and the author is probably a better developer for it.

would he have apologized thought if he hadn't gotten caught? doesn't sound like it.

I really don't know all of the details on this situation, so perhaps this doesn't apply... but it does occur to me that often people don't realize they've crossed the line until somebody (maybe many somebodies, if they're stubborn) points it out to them.

i think that's true, but in this case i think he knew that he wasn't being honest the whole time... which is partly why he apologizes so profusely.

I don't agree, from the blog it makes it sound like it really became an arms race - he was more interested in 'winning' than in serving his users.

Once he was outed, he realized what he'd done and came to his senses.

Sometimes you need to be caught to realize the magnitude of what you've done.