I'm not sure as I don't use titanium backup. There is no need for Apex, as it is able to be backed up within the program. I don't think it should matter though.No go for me. Could it be that I used Titanium Backup to restore a version of Apex Launcher and that is why it is not working? When I go to Apex settings, theme settings; There is no option for BWicons.
The .apk does show in /system/app and the file is set to r/w
You say you have the permissions set to r/w, just to be clear, it should look like below.
User R W
Group R
Other R
Only user should be r/w, the rest should be just r.
If you are following the instructions I gave you to a "t" and it still does not work, then I am not sure how else to help. Maybe I can put it into a flashable zip. I will look into that when I get home.