because if they won the fight it could have become a significant source of income?

This is about the future of the metaverse.

Longread: https://medium.com/gamemakers/the-economy-of-the-metaverse-i...

To make more money. More is more even if it is not making their most important thing make more money.

Just like Apple has not killed most of their desktop offering just because they are not a very significant part of their income.

Also a big chunk of it is probably just Tim Sweeneys personal opinions (he owns over 50% epic by himself so what he says happens pretty much). Basically he is rather strongly (and very openly) against any walled garden platforms.

The difference is that nobody said Apple was done for as a company due to this lawsuit. Both Apple and Epic will lose money due to it, but both makes most of their money elsewhere so they can fight to their heart's content.