So who's actually getting this settlement money? After all the lawyers are done with it of course.
For the past players, I have mixed feelings. Generally speaking, I don't really like the concept of "reparations" for the wrongs impacting prior generations (i.e. not going back a couple hundred years), or in situations like this where the laws, rules, and restrictions evolved or changed.
With this settlement having a go-back date to 2016 or whatever it is, why that date? Players have played and been limited forever up until the past couple years. You can't in any way determine what each player could have gotten so you can only apply a universal amount. And those that are currently playing won't benefit from rule or legal changes in the future. That's just the concept of progress and evolution.
If my wife were to apologize to me today for the lack of sex the past 20 years and for some reason decided to actually have it going forward, I don't get makeup sex (very unfortunate). You often get performance raises based on the past year of employment, but they aren't retroactive - the difference only goes forward. When tax laws change, people that have paid taxes under old laws don't suddenly get refunds years later. When laws change (i.e. marijuana legalization), generally past offenses aren't expunged (though there have been instances of that being part of the new law's rollout).