The same way Bowser did, I suppose. Wage garnishing + whatever Patreon money they earned?
Apparently it's estimated to have made some $1.2 million from patreon so that may help
>why did they settle for that much?
Bad crooked lawyers that said they had no chance or very good lawyers that said they had no chance. IANAL, so I can't truly say which.
> isn't strict emulation legal? Maybe not in the US...
It is AFAIK, apparently the judgement's big argument here is
>Developing or distributing software, including Yuzu, that in its ordinary course functions only when cryptographic keys are integrated without authorization, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s prohibition on trafficking in devices that circumvent effective technological measures, because the software is primarily designed for the purpose of circumventing technological measures.
Again, I don't know how much water that holds.
>is there something fishy that was hidden somewhere?
Depends on if you think whether or not it would have cost more than $2.5m dollars to fight nintendo in a full battle. I imagine Yuzu doesn't have such funds nor means to. So this was the cheapest option for them.