It is a difficult written article (with that sentence 'unless they received benefits or compensation and were given assistance in that third country') in between, but you are likely right since 'if if the operating air carrier of the flight concerned is a Community carrier'. It is very weird that this restriction only applies to inbound EU flights, and not to outbound ones. Seems that in the case of the Doomed AF hence went that extra mile by paying compensation on top of expenses - which indeed is great and clearly acknowledges their initial mistake.