I think it will matter in
I think it will matter in 10ish years when GM/Ford/VW/etc finally start selling cars with the SAE standard connector, but CHADEMO is the defacto standard. It's a decision today that will affect what occurs on that future day.
As for the details of the settlement - yeah, good points, and if you look at the previous article on this (follow link in the article) you'll see I raised the same questions.
It is not a settlement in the normal sense of "settlement". NRG describes it as a business investment in building a business, not that they paid a fine. What isn't clear is whether Blink/Coulomb will get squeezed out.