Totally fair, but I think it's safe to say Carmack isn't stupid. He wouldn't be lodging the case if he didn't have some kind of reasonable chance to punishing

Totally fair, but I think it's safe to say Carmack isn't stupid. He wouldn't be lodging the case if he didn't have some kind of reasonable chance to punishing ZeniMax with it. Given that, I suspect the basis for failure to comply might not as be as clear cut as you make it sound.