However, you paint the whole thing as a corrupt failure. Hasn't smoking use dropped dramatically? Sure, lots of people got paid/power along the way, but we did make a large dent in the problem.
This would of course have immediately bankrupted every tobacco company.
This pretty much obligated the states to transfer their interests to investors of the securitizations in order to reduce the obvious conflict of interest.
I'm sure there were some good aspects of the MSA that I failed to mention. The restrictions on marketing is one that comes to mind without a lot of thought.
I think the biggest problem (that I remember) was money getting allocated to pay for things other than programs to help the original victims.
It would be politically hard to oppose the arrangement without looking pro-Tobacco, or at least without getting smeared that way by the beneficiaries...