The fact is he obviously learned this practice was acceptable via whatever means and now he has apologized for it offered damages an people are still crucifying him. I'm sure 99% of the people crucifying him have done something along the way the regret as well and wouldn't want a lifetime tag of it.
And now for the moral dilemma that outlines the hypocrisy here. You just described the reasoning behind me making a trolling bet, yet even though I also didn't intend to profit nor actually profit (in fact I paid much more than Garr will ever be able to pay in his lifetime probably) as a result of it, I'm still deemed a scammer or "untrustworthy". Why would that be? Because he's a few years younger than me?
Matthew numerous people relied upon your pledge as a mechanism to offload the risk of holding Pirate debt. They made bets with you, and then purchased debts in the secondary market with the expectation that your bet would protect them in case of a failure. This strategy was openly discussed in dozens of posts in the days after pirate's default.
By continuing to pretend you would honor a bet you couldn't possible pay, you caused many people to take actions that cost them real money. That is why you deserved to never be trusted in this community.
I wasn't foolish enough to use that strategy but I have no doubts that 10s of thousands were lost by people relying on your good reputation at the time. Quit trying to whitewash yourself.