[protocolture]

The issue is that anything a hacker can do publicly a state actor can do silently.

Its a boon to both the company and the country when a hacker makes a big public deal out of it. Because they get the chance to repair something before its intentional damaging misuse by a hostile state actor.

The hackers here deserve every cent plus possibly more.

And theres always the problem that the hackers would still get paid, they just wont report the payments making tracking difficult.