> Damages are compensatory.

No,compensatory damages are compensatory. Statutory and exemplary/punitive damages are not compensatory

> Allowing a jury to pluck 9-digit numbers from thin air to be reduced later is stupid. tory.

Juries aren't allowed to pick numbers out of the air; on compensatory damages, as the finder of fact, the jury performs the same function as a criminal jury, it determines what facts were proven to the required standard, including the amount of harm proven.

I was on a civil jury a while ago and it was pretty eye opening how the process actually works. I'd say about half of the court time was dedicated to arguments about proving specific damages and ultimately the result was that the jury found in favor of the plaintiff but awarded a much lower damage amount than they were asking for specifically because they failed to prove that amount of harm. The idea of juries plucking random numbers of out thin air doesn't even remotely match my experience, or reality based on conversations I've had with lawyers I know.