Except this wasn't an issue of being too careful, and it definitely doesn't count as good communication!
Z_M_Davis made a remark that was both poorly-reasoned and supportive of every other comment he left in the discussion (in trivializing the privileged state of any choice of identity). If he had been arguing against the third horn, okay, maybe it could have been read as "oh, he's cleverly mocking a position he disagrees with".
But then he comes back with, "I was trying to be cute." Okay, so he's ... doing self-parody. Great -- we all need to be able to laugh at ourselves. So what's his real position, then?
Oh, you see, he was making a very subtle point about identity being scalar rather than binary (which has some as-of-yet unspecified implication for the merit of his position). And there was a hidden argument in there that allows him to see his life as no different from any others and yet still act in preference to himself. And it was obvious what distinction he was making by using the words "very roughly the same reason" instead of "exactly the same reason".
I'm sorry, but that's just not "how it works". You can claim illusion of transparency issues if the assumed common knowledge is small, and you have a reasonable basis for assuming it, and your full explanation doesn't look blatantly ad hoc.
In other words, anywhere but here.
I'm sorry to belabor the point, but yes, sometimes you just have to admit you goofed. Mistakes are okay! We all make them! But we don't all try to say "I meant to do that".
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On reflection, I'm actually going to start spelling my first name again.