Would someone, literally anyone, attempting to fool people into seeing midichlorians as a cool concept count as apologizing?
Yes.
Personally I think James was trying to make the best out of the poor material he was given rather than trying to purposefully deceive people into thinking the idea was good in it’s original form. But that’s just me.
I’ve never read any PT era EU books, so I don’t actually know what Luceno did. However, he should’ve known that any attempt to make meaty-chlorines a “cool concept” is futile.