That's a legal tactic regardless of initial intent or guilt. If you thinking waiting someone out is cheaper than losing or settling, then you stall. It puts a financial burden on them.
I'm not saying it's right, and it's also not an indicator of guilt, malice, or forethought.
Additionally people seem to think of legal contracts and licenses as being set in stone or non negotiable. In the legal world they are simple the starting point for any negotiation.
https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/principles.htm...
"Our primary goal in GPL enforcement is to bring about GPL compliance. Copyleft's overarching policy goal is to make respect of users' freedoms the norm. The GNU GPL's text is designed towards this end. Copyleft enforcement done in this spirit focuses on stopping incorrect distribution, encouraging corrected distribution, and addressing damage done to the community and users by the past violation. Addressing past damage often includes steps to notify those who have already received the software how they can also obtain its source code, and to explain the scope of their related rights. No other ancillary goals should supersede full compliance with the GPL and respect for users' freedoms to copy, share, modify and redistribute the software."
Again, I'm not supporting or encouraging the behavior. This is just the reality of the legal system.
You're giving companies way too much credit. Unless a company has been sued for something, they often have no insight into or awareness of it. Most companies do not have strict policies around using GPL or OSS. The legal, audit and compliance teams are only aware of things when it's brought to their attention.
Our company is very good about accessibility and ease of use in our products, but only because someone used the ADA to sue the shit out of us a decade ago.
I would wager that most GPL violations are made by folks who are consciously aware of what they're doing, and the companies they work for are completely unaware that such decisions are even being made. There's no actuary running the numbers and saying "yeah go ahead and violate it, litigation is cheaper than compliance", that's tinfoil hat level thinking IMO.