What Brad said was that "if" that version is considered flawed, meaning that it is up to the reviewers themselves to judge whether 1.05 is flawed or not. He never said whether he thinks it is flawed or not. You may, however, read his post in it's entirety, instead of employing your tunnel vision to one particular word, and then try to deduce for yourself whether he thinks 1.05 is flawed). And if you actually do that - reading it in context, then his post comes off as a long, deepfelt apology.
So let's examine here what Brad did say: He said: Please accept my apologies. We realize now that Elemental was not ready, and we will do our damnedest to rectify that. In the meantime, if you are going to review our game, please review that flawed version, since that is what we released. How much more do you need?
Ok. So first you say "He never said whether he thinks it is flawed or not." Then you use your powers of deduction to read between his lines to divine what he meant but didn't actually say:
"He said: Please accept my apologies. We realize now that Elemental was not ready...".
And you conclude "...his post comes off as a long, deepfelt apology".
You're certainly entitled to that opinion, and to read that into his post.
I, instead go by what he actually did and didn't say, not by what I deduce he meant. He did say "...if that version [1.05] of the game is considered flawed...". He didn't say the word 'apology' or 'apologize' or 'apologies' or anything similar. Has he done so anywhere, in regards to the state of Elemental's release? If so, please to link...
If you wish to go by what you imagine he meant, that's fine with me. Apparently my going by what he actually did and didn't say isn't fine with you -- and that's also fine with me.
- If that [deduction of yours gleaned by reading between his lines] is not a sincere apology, then what is?
Oh Oh I know the answer to this!
I've made similar mistakes. My apology, were I the King of the SD Forest for Elemental's release, would go something like this:
"I'm sorry, I was wrong. I promised, voluntarily and on my initiative, I wouldn't release Elemental before it was ready, and obviously I did. What happened was, due to the real world realities of reserving retail shelf space, I got stuck with only 2 choices for release -- Aug or Feb. My best judgment was that Feb was too late -- because I thought Elemental would be ready well before that -- and I truly believed we could get Elemental ready by Aug, so I chose Aug. That's not an excuse -- I'm not making an excuse -- it's just the explanation. Anyways I was wrong, no excuse, and I apologize. We'll work our butts off to make it up to you, to give you the game we're capable of and that you deserve."
No need for any divination, deduction, or reading between the lines.
Criticism is fine - expecially when facing a release as catastrophic as that of Elemental...
"Catastrophic"? Heck, I don't think it was that bad. It's just not up to what was promised, and what SD is capable of. If they hadn't painted themselves into the 'aug or feb' corner, and had another couple of months (say, a Nov release), I think release would have been pretty darn good.
...but bashing is not OK, and even if you try to hide behind good intentions, that is exactly what you are doing!
First, if you wish to call my holding him responsible for his unbroken promise and his waffling non-apology apology 'bashing' -- that's fine.
Second, it should be pretty darn obvious from my several wall-of-texts laying out of the reasons behind my arguments that I'm not hiding behind anything. It's all laid out for the readers to judge for themselves.
So please get down from that high horse...
Am I on a high horse, or does it just appear that way from where you're standing?
...if you still feel the need to post, try to be part of the solution - i.e. offering constructive crticism, instead of trying soooo hard to be part of the problem.
It's interesting that in the very post of mine that you quote I link to several examples of constructive criticisms and even kind things I said about SD and Elemental. Since you apparently missed them the first time I'll repost them:
LINK (a previous post in this very thread)
LINK (from back in June, and the thread is a very interesting/informative one regarding the game being ready for an aug release)
You could find better examples if you chose to put in a little effort.
I can understand you not being aware of all the 'constructive criticisms', suggestions, compliments, and all I've made since beta began, but missing them in the very post you quoted?!?!
Anyhoo, thank you for the opportunity to further refine my thoughts and arguments on this 
