I can't ever remember any airline ever publishing a justification for its operational decisions?
Go back 20 odd years, QF, Ansett or any other significant Australian operator would simply have got on with operating under the prevailing conditions, be that grounding all operations or whatever. It was good, old fashioned airmanship.
To effectively ask for "forgiveness" is bizarre.
Do you think it became clear how badly they mismanaged the pax, communications etc., post event, that they needed an action to distract the public from their disorganisation? Or, is QF senior management so extremely wobbly on taking the command approach to running their airline they actually are attempting to spin their way out of their own incometence?
For mine, I don't believe anyone will still buy the QF safety-first story anymore. You simply can't have that many recent, successive & significant incidents and still claim safety as your number one priority. CASA needs to take a serious look at the command culture or lack there of at QF.