Re: "We agree with the district court’s reasoning"
"I haven't read the full judgment, but the judge's reasoning described in the article is quite different"
I've read it. The judgement is in terms of what the plaintiffs were actually claiming.
The nub of the complaint against Cloudflare AIUI is that it made the website load faster. In terms of the analogy it's like blaming the road makers for laying down black top over a rough track which enabled a faster getaway. Long story short - it didn't make any difference, they'd have gotten away anyway.