This is a classic non-apology apology. He's not sorry for the original action which offended people, just that his action caused offense. It's the kind of corporate double-speak you hear from someone who is not sorry for their actions.
Except he apologised for causing hurt, he didn't apologise that people felt hurt. There's a difference in the level of responsibility taken for the action.
Because that one is about his personal opinion, which nobody should give two fucks about? It's what he does as CEO that matters. And from what I can see, he's pretty much made it clear he's willing to put his personal opinion aside for that.
A sequence of words does not have a single meaning and does not always mean the exact same thing. This sequence of words is not necessarily a non-apology apology. That interpretation denies the possibility that someone can be genuinely sorry that his opinion and words caused grief, even though he still stands by that opinion and those words.
There is a difference between apologizing for your behavior and apologizing for the way people react to it. One implies accountability, the other does not.
The different between "I'm sorry I hurt you" and "I'm sorry you got hurt" is who is at fault and who is responsible.
Saying you're sorry you hurt someone, is you taking responsibility for something you did. Saying you're sorry someone got hurt, sounds like the victim was wrong for getting hurt, and it's the victim's responsibility.
I think you mis-read it. Please re-read it again and again and again.
I can only ask for your support to have the time to “show, not tell”; and in the meantime express my sorrow at having caused pain.
I will rewrite this for him.
"I can only ask for your support to have the time to "show, not tell"; and in the meantime I want to show you my sadness, regret for causing you feeling distress and uncomfortable."
I replace express and sorrow with definition coming straight out of a dictionary.
And it's even further from "I'm sorry for punching you in the face. I was wrong to do that."