I would give him a break if his more recent published opinions didn't sound like a more mature and intellectually vailed version of the very same attitude.
Exactly. This is what the Facebook/Zuckerberg apologists aren't getting. I think most people can get behind giving people a second chance, but Zuckerberg is basically doing a "git rebase newMotivation". None of the behaviors seem to be changing, just the claimed reason for them.