Too many lords, not enough stewards

>I was actually rather puzzled, my thinking was along the lines of 'He just said those that don't intervene are complicit, and then gave reasons why contributors don't intervene?' In spite of my overall agreement of the ideas presented, that point stuck out to me as more than a little wrong.

Ah I understand now why this wasnt clear enough, I didn't emphasis enough that I mean different people. And I also didn't emphasis enough that I think the problematic aspect of apologizing/excusing is when it's done by people with influence and power, like maintainers or very long-term contributors.

Trying to press the mass of general contributors (who don't have any real power to stand up) into supporting anything is indeed problematic, since it's essentially a flavour of victim-blaming. With your background I understand why you reacted strongly to that idea.