> Sure, it was a civil trial - but a judge signed off on the amount, and the jury’s decision, even though historically in any other case, such an amount would have been overruled.

It's provably false that “in any other case" such an amount would have been overruled, since much larger civil damage awards have been issued. If you mean to claim “on similar facts” then its an unfalsifiable counterfactual that just restares your conclusion as evidence for itself.