The current state of patent law is that the only way you can be sure not to infringe on it is to never build anything, ever. In that environment, I can actually sympathize with "I'm breaking the law, but I don't want to get in trouble".

What if the laws are dumb and dangerously arbitrary? Like, say, patent laws. To be fair, it's not so much "laws" as "things people can sue you over", but that distinction doesn't become relevant until after the lawsuit and large amounts of money down the drain. And then they disappear without recouping your costs, because they're a goddamn shell company.

It is a sad excuse, but only because we live in a sad reality with massively broken patent laws.

That would be true, if the laws weren't harmful on their own. 20 year patents are way too long, and software patents are ridiculous. Only 5 more years before you can write a linked list with multiple traversal orders without licensing it from the patent holder! https://www.google.com/patents/US7028023

If it's a "dealing pot" sort of infringement (e.g. against patents that shouldn't exist, but do), then it's a legitimate reason to hide their tracks. If it's a "robbing banks" level of infringement, then it's not.