I agree with the idea that pax should be told straight what's happening, but it isn't always a very good idea... ...I was slf on a delayed Bangkok Airways flight from VTBD to Koh Samui a few years back... ...in broken english the pilot excused the delay by saying "This was due to a serious malfunction with the engines on the previous flight"... ...err, right, more info than I needed really - "I spilt my yoghurt all over the pedestal" would have been much better, thanks!
So, maybe the AF guy calling up and saying "Doh! I goofed it guys. You'd think I'd know what I'm doing by now wouldn't you? Oh well I'll go around and try again." might not have been helpful either. All he really did was execute a bit of automated blurb to tell the pax what they wanted to hear: "yeah, we're going up again, but there's nothing wrong with the plane, with me, or with the runway, so don't worry about it!"
Somebody should publish a book: "1000 great excuses for executing a go-around".