What made you think he was banned? I maybe missed something that came out after it but it wasn't that different than stuff he has said before and then been invited back to do more. If he had done one, gone out in a blaze of glory and never been allowed near an awards show stage again then that would be one thing. But they keep asking him back every few years so either there's not some industry cabal or if there is they aren't bothered by what he's saying.
With the stuff Gervais does it gets to feel a little edgy, people get to have a kick out of seeing someone stick it to the establishment but ultimately it is being done with their approval. It reminds me of something Chris Morris said in an interview a bit ago "The problem is that I think we've got used to a kind of satire which essentially placates the cause. You do a nice dissection of the way things are in the orthodox elite and lo and behold you get slapped on the back by the orthodox elite who say 'jolly good can you do us another one.'"
Extras season 2 is really interesting because it's basically Gervais and Merchant exploring the idea of what if they'd let producers fuck The Office up with their shitty ideas.
I don't really know but i remember after the backlash when he told celebs not to talk politics during their acceptance speech, i read somewhere or another he was not welcome anymore, not that he cared...
I agree the capitalist monster best weapon is its capacity to digest everything (even harsh critics) and make it into something useful for capitalism (mostly something you can sell... Che guevara shirts being the best exemple).
Extras is basically the Ricky Gervais story about when he wrote the office and tried to sell it to studios (season 1) and after selling it to BBC and watching it become far from what he originally envisionned (season 2). But once again, not every screenwriter would manage to sell a character like the bbc producer to the bbc producers, basically telling them "i wrote a shitty character who is supposed to portray you and you wont say anything about it" is not something someone untalented could do !