Maybe they didn't even definitively work around the patent, but at least if they made an effort it could have made it a battle, which can get costly. As long as the potential cost of litigation is seen as potentially greater than the benefit of reducing competition, it can deter the conflict from becoming a case. If the defendant didn't even try to make the geometry different, there's no chance the legal black box probably contains a loss for them. If they did try, it could go either way, and the complainant could be lose and be out a lot of money for something that's not a big threat to their revenue at the end of the day.