What purpose is served in suggesting responses to a hypothetical situation that hasn't occurred?

Lawyers are expensive.   A big company like Dell can throw the Consumerist a whole bunch of "requests" and force the Consumerist to consult an attorney to deal with each new request.  Gawker media probably has an excellent in-house counsel (Gabby), but eventually she will need to consult an outside lawyer if Dell presses the issue.

The Consumerist can conceivably be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees even before they see the inside of a court room.

Besides, I think Dell has learned some valuable lessons from this situation.  Without all the complaints from consumers like us, can you be so sure that Dell would have backed down so easily? 

I'm sure you did the legwork necessary to be certain that it was the truth, too.

The Consumerist never claimed that the story they published was "The Truth."  They simply said "hey this is what someone claiming to be a former Dell employee told us."

When other Dell employees wrote in with their own opinions, the Consumerist published those, too.  If Dell Corporate thought the article was inaccruate, I'm sure Ben would've been more than happy to publish Dell's responses. 

Having this open discussion expedites the flow of accurate information to consumers. 

Instead of responding with their own facts, Dell brought out the implied legal threats, which is a good indication that there are things in the original post that Dell doesn't want you to think about.

What's the matter with you? Have a personal dislike for Dell?

I've had mixed experiences with Dell.  They often make stupid mistakes in customer service (they once sent me two laptops when I only ordered one, and charged me for three), but I will give them this:  Once the mistakes are escalated up to the higher level customer service people, they've always went the extra mile to fix the problem.  Kind of remind me of this situation, actually.

FWIW, I took my bar on a Dell Inspiron, so I guess you could say I once trusted Dell with my life.