$1MM is not a fantastical figure. Not every lawyer can mount an adequate defense in a federal criminal case and the ones that can cost a lot of money.

As for sentencing, it doesn't matter. He shouldn't have been charged in the first place and it shouldn't be policy to throw an absurd amount of charges at someone knowing that only a few will stick.

As for his socioeconomic status, I am also a white middle class kid who likes computers and so I identify with him. That's why I care more about this issue. That seems to be your point, but it's just a basic reality of human psychology and it's not revelatory or significant. It doesn't change the fact that what happened to him is wrong.