I want my account back, I even said so at the end. But I also want to let people know that, despite having access to some high level people inside of FB, I most likely won't get my account back.

So it's two-fold: I want people to know they can get banned, at any time, for life, without much of a warning. And two: you might depend on Facebook more than you'd like to, so plan accordingly.

I really hate that I can't talk to James anymore. I didn't even bother to swap email addresses.

Well, he is pretty open about this, despite his ambivalence to Facebook he even says he realises that it has more a hold of him than he thought it would.

Hang in there. De-Zucking your life is a net positive.