True. But specific statements of fact were made, by fox staff, and when there's internal memos from fox's own fact checkers calling the statements false, and communications between executives and the staff making the statements acknowledging their falsity, and yet they're repeated over and over, mind reading doesn't enter into it. Most likely if it had gone to trial, they would have done better pursuing the element of how much actual damage was done, and seeking a smaller result. There's a good chance they would have got it too. On the other hand, the trial itself with testimony under oath from all their talking heads, fact checkers and executives would have been even more damaging to them than the direct financial cost. Thus, a settlement where Dominion gets more than they almost certainly would have been awarded, and fox doesn't get quite so badly dragged through the mud.
Let me put this another way though. Are you really so arrogant that you think you know better than the entire army of lawyers employed by the largest, and almost certainly the most litigated against, "news" media corporation in the world?