If he simply had released a contrite statement, returned two months later and never spoke about this again, it's possible he could have been back at 897 now and climbing. Certainly not this low.
Precisely. In my exjw circle, I've been saying the same thing since it happened. He failed at managing the PR crisis tremendously.
Even narcissists don't shy away from apologizing. They don't mean the apology, but they will apologize if failing to apologize means they'll lose any kind of status.