OK, that's freaky. I read the HN comments first, then the original article. By the time I read the original article, it had been updated to quote the HN thread:
On Hacker News, the grumbling about the settlement was
immediate. “I honestly do not understand why the
plaintiffs would settle this case,” one poster wrote. But
some saw another side: “What did the engineers risk with
this lawsuit? Nothing. What did the law firm risk?
Getting paid peanuts for hundreds of hours they spend on
the case if they lose.”