Perhaps, but if one includes the risk of the lawsuit failing combined with the time to assemble the case, it's a loss for a lot of people. Since you're selecting out people based on income or how much they value their time, you're also selecting out most of the people who would go through with this in the first place.

I'm asserting that there won't be that many people willing and able to bring these cases to AT&T, particularly when the payout is so low, and that, in the end, makes the whole deal peanuts for AT&T.