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Originally Posted by Mithadan
Feel free to disagree, but I very firmly believe that this is Christopher speaking, not JRRT. This is an apology if he got it wrong from what his father intended, which, in retrospect, was a valid apology.
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It could be read that way. As you probably know, the actual text is originally from the Valaquenta. It can be found in
Morgoth's Ring:
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Here ends The Valaquenta. If it has passed from the high and beautiful to darkness and ruin, that was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the Marring be amended, Manwė and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it, and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.
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Christopher Tolkien notes that
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This passage was used to form a conclusion to the published Silmarillion
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So it may be an apology. It's certainly repurposed material and has a very different meaning in the context of Quenta Silmarillion compared to its original position in Valaquenta in which it muses upon the relationship of the fallen Ainur to the fate of the world.