The tech world shows us that the winning strategy is to just go ahead and do what you want, ideally with consistent financial backing, and pay our way out of any issues that arise.
Similarly a business looks at a penalty and makes a judgement. This isn’t some insane immoral concept.
Okay, but everything you said after that has nothing to do with that statement.
You choosing to break laws has nothing to do with criminal vs civil. It has everything to do with where your moral compass points. You choose to break rules because you've decided to do that based on whatever moral integerity you do/don't have.