That doesn't account for the frustration and confusion, the time wasted troubleshooting, the loss of property and time spent replacing it, the consumer trust violations, and the destruction of private property. They should face criminal charges for destruction of private property. By "they" I mean the executives who created and mandated this idea. Then they should be required to pay pain and suffering to each affected user at a rate of $100 per hour, with 5-10 hours assumed, and then have to replace the controllers they broke. Not give money to replace them, they should be required to immediately ship a new controller of the same type that they broke. Anything else is just lip-service, and a nice check for some random law firm.

I don't think the controllers are literally "damaged", it sounds like just muddling legal terminology with technical terminology.

The controllers are still physically functional in the same way they were before the patch, they're just mo longer consistently connecting to the ps5. If Sony rolls back the patch they will return to normal.

That said, returns and reputational damages would be substantial to these companies and the fine does sound too small for such blatant anti-competitive and anti-consumer action.