What is it with this superfluous apologizing I see so often with people who get banned?

These shitty bounties can ask you to do anything, including breaking bitcointalk rules.  That doesn't mean people shouldn't know what the rules are or what the consequences are in the event that those rules are broken.  In short, you should have known that what this bounty was asking was illegal by bitcointalk standards. 

In any event, now you know.  You're lucky you just got a temp ban and not a permanent one.