a partner - which specializes in civil cases and I recall him saying that you cannot "interpret" guilt or its absence from out-of-court settlement in general, a defendant who initiates an offer has probably decided either not to drag their name through the court proceedings and risking their name and reputation regardless of guilt or realizes the likelihood of a decision in their favour is reduced.
Civil lawsuits are not about guilt; they are about money. Generally, a plaintiff is looking for money or for an injunction. And generally a Defendant is not seeking to defend his name but his assets.Ultimately, everything having a resolution in dollars. Hence, a defense looks at the case in terms of the cheapest way to get out of if. Legal fees are expensive and time and resources valuable. Cheapest is to give Plaintiffs some money and settle out of Court. Generally that is what insurance companies love to do, and they will tell you: "in a spirit of fairness and of compromise but without any admission of doing wrong." By the same token Plaintiff's attorneys don't work for free but for a fee or on contingency so they dont care whether or not defendants are liable but the only thing that really matters to them is the depth of vulnerable pockets, so someone with no money is not worth suing.
And generally, making offers instead of going to Court have nothing to do with protecting one's good name since everybody knows that civil lawsuits are generally about extracting money from vulnerable pockets.
But there are cases where harm results to to others because of actions or lack of actions or measures by some entity. In such cases, such entities should be stopped. In such cases it is just and proper that such victims be compensated for their losses and such entities should be stopped legally from causing any more harm. However, in the US, the Courts have not found that WT is systematically causing harm and should be stopped.
One facing criminal charges however, would not spare anything he has, to fight such charges, especially if innocent, choosing jail and any expense and lengthy Court battle over compromise to defend one's good name. But that ain't what Civil proceedings are about.