It would not be over if he apologized

Judging from what happened with the exchanges I believe the steem community can be forgiving and he if follows his apology with some positive actions he might win a lot of people over.

Many don't trust him and never will.

That can easily be solved with legal contracts. The whole idea of blockchain is to have a trustless system, whatever that will be agreed upon ought to be coded into the system.

What about an apology from ourside for tampering with Stake?

I think you already know my position on this.