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When you file a lawsuit you initially make every argument you might possibly want to use in your initial filing, knowing some of them will be whittled down. Pretty much every lawsuit ever includes some claims that are a bit of a stretch, because the lawyers need to CYA. If you fail to make the argument you may be precluded from introducing it later, so it's just safer to include it now.

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I think it's more about running up the legal bill of the defendant. It costs virtually nothing to include a spurious claim in a complaint (it can literally be a sentence or two). The defense has the burden of getting the weak claim dismissed with pages and pages of arguments (because they don't want any chance of it slipping through).

The bar for a "shotgun" complaint is way too high in the legal system.

I sort of suspect it's also a case of bluffing. You can't know for sure which aspect of a complaint is the one that makes the defendants soil themselves, and you might trigger a settlement or make them behave strangely in ways that give you clues about where exactly it is they're ticklish.

I've been told before that some people will settle a case to avoid setting a legal precedent, which might trigger giant class action suits.

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