Part of the reason to break Apple's rule was to get on the fast lane of a lawsuit (as they can easily show damages) as well as try to get empathy moves from their audience taht could be used to push for more legislative outreach (project Liberty).
In the end, this was just a small gamble from Epic, they lose like what, 7-10% of their revenue for a possible big win? Small risk, big reward. Only danger position was when Apple went for Unreal Engine.
Not only is this not how it works in terms of damages to show for their case (Epic could have sued without breaking the contract; the damages would still have been existant absent being kicked off the Store), but the Judge offered in pre-trial to create an account neither Epic nor Apple could touch where all the disputed revenue could go until the case could be decided.
Apple said yes to this but Epic said no.
Which means they have lost out on years of revenue (7-10% loss is no joke CEOs lose their jobs over less), but that there was zero reason to risk the past few years revenue on this case. This was a totally unnecessary risk and I think Sweeney has finally realized how recklessly he litigated as evidence by the fact he's basically begging Apple to let him back on the Apple Store.