The facts are the SEC thinks Coinbase ran afoul of the laws and regulations around securities. Coinbase has been trying to get the SEC to either explicitly or implicitly allow Coinbase's operations, and the SEC declined to do so.

They probably went through several legal teams before they found one that could be willing to try some wild strategy, or they were willing to take the Uber approach and break the law and cash the checks, hoping to outrun law enforcement and lobby for the laws to change.

Yeah, I can see they're trading in unregistered securities, and they're going to have the book thrown at them for it. Anyone that's not a crypto fanboy can see they were trading in unregistered securities.

Disputing the claims that a self-interested party makes doesn't mean you think you're smarter than them. It's okay to disagree with people; even lawyers and rich people.

And you think you know more than the SEC

No, the OP thinks the SEC is not operating in good faith.

But we should assume the opposite is true of Coinbase?

This is what courts are for! Is Coinbase acting in bad faith? Is the SEC? Who knows. They will have to put up or shut up in a courtroom.

I'm not sure what that means in this context.

Not that uncommon, I'm afraid. Check out the GDPR threads: there is a huge difference between the people who discussed implementing it with lawyers and the general public.

And there is a huge difference between the people who 'discussed implementing it with [american] lawyers' and people who actually worked with EU watchdogs and implemented changes.

No idea about that, as I am in the EU. What kind of advice did you hear from American lawyers?