The repercussions Apple faced were essentially insignificant to them as a company. The money they had to pay was a drop in the bucket, and having to stop doing something illegal is not a punishment for the illegal thing; it's literally what everyone who didn't do anything illegal has already been doing the whole time!

As I said before, the issue to me isn't whether Palm would have been successful without the illegal activity, it's whether Apple would have been as successful as they were.