"I'm sorry you feel that way" is shaped like an apology, but is essentially blaming the other party's feelings as being the problem. "I'm sorry I did that" is

"I'm sorry you feel that way" is shaped like an apology, but is essentially blaming the other party's feelings as being the problem. "I'm sorry I did that" is an actual apology. To be clear, I'm agreeing with you. I think that the former version emerged as it's litigation proof. Corporate PR can say that without it being an admission of anything if whatever they fucked up results in a lawsuit. It has spread to personal communications from corporate ones and it's now so prevalent that it is possible someone might use it and actually mean a real apology. But it's ... tainted.