Tamara offered, in her "equation", which by the way, I cannot honestly fault, the following:
Here's the equation from the relevent sides:
Bushmaster and their insurance company: Is it going to cost us more than $550k to string this one out in the courtroom, win or lose?
Plaintiff's attorneys and the plaintiffs: If we string this out, do we stand an even moderately decent chance of collecting more than $550k?
These were the only equations involved. Bushmaster saved money. They avoided the possible fate, however slim the chance, of a defeat in court (which would have been much worse for our side than any out-of-court settlement, boys & girls.) The plaintiffs got something, which they apparently considered preferrable to the nothing that they feared they might wind up with in court. (...and as I mentioned above, the something they got was a chump change settlement. They'd do better to drive to the nearest Mickey Dee's and dump hot coffee in their laps.)
This is the way it works.
__________________
MOLON LABE!
Majority rule: Solving mankind's problems since Og and Zog stole Thurg's woman and mammoth jerky.
While the "balance" of the equation, or the equation itsself, might rub me the wrong way, this being a purely subjective conclusion, 2 + 2 are still 4, and her equation still balances, rather nicely at that, especially when one takes a moment to think about it.