Even if you're against Snowden and defend the NSA, I believe there really was a big miscalculation about how employees would perceive such program if it was bad

Even if you're against Snowden and defend the NSA, I believe there really was a big miscalculation about how employees would perceive such program if it was badly implemented, and the potential for misuse and mismanagement of those tools. It sounds like immense negligence combined with hawkish cyber warfare ambitions. The first thing that comes into my mind, is the cost/benefit estimation of him leaking those things if I were in his shoes. So far he managed to mitigate the cost done to him, and did something he believed would benefit his country. What I'm curious about is the intelligence costs those leaks generated. Were the documents leaked carefully chosen to limit that damage and still prove those programs were unconstitutional? Or was the damage real?