I think that's all true, but also doesn't contradict anything I said in my original comment unfortunately. You have good reasons for saying/doing these things,

I think that's all true, but also doesn't contradict anything I said in my original comment unfortunately. You have good reasons for saying/doing these things, but the impression you give off is still the impression you give off. If you want it to be a good impression, the trick is to ignore slightly rude comments, avoid mentioning that you "didn't care" initially, avoid talking about how little effort you put into the project, etc. People are going to (correctly?) assume this is defensiveness.