This. Also lawyers are expensive, and hiring a team of experienced lawyers is even more so. A bean counter probably crunched the numbers and found it would be more cost effective to settle now than to fight it out/ run the risk of losing (in which case they may also have to pay for the plantiff’s legal fees)

Likely tacit acknowledgment that the US is becoming more authoritarian/run by a mob boss. For example, if you don’t pay the local mafia, you can expect them to show up and do bad things to you. However if you pay a bribe and kiss the ring, you may receive protection instead

“Hacking” can be as easy as running some script you found online to prowl for vulnerable systems. This doesn’t take a lot of creativity. A lot of people/businesses/governments don’t practice good security hygiene (e.g. apply security patches as soon as they’re available) and end up getting popped by skiddies. I’d be more impressed if these Russian “hackers” could consistently repel attacks, but a simple google search suggests that they are struggling to defend their own turf

If you have specific bugs/crashes that you can reproduce consistently please consider reporting them to https://www.apple.com/feedback/. This creates a bug report that an Apple developer will look at.

Looks like Apple has been working on this, but for whatever reason hasn’t launched it