There was a high likelihood that individuals would have been responsible for the judgment. I doubt it would get to Lenk/Colburn as Colburn only received the phone call long after the initial incarceration, but Sheriff Pagel (and a few others) were very likely on the path towards individual liability and the insurance company very likely declining coverage.
On the second point regarding not knowing the impact, you don't have to be a civil litigator to understand that an Avery murder conviction would dramatically impact the underlying civil lawsuit. I mean a jury has to sit and here about how it was so terrible that a murderer was falsely incarcerated for a rape he did not commit. How much do you think they are going to award a murderer for being falsely incarcerated? That's if you look past the fact that he now has to pay attorneys to defend him in the criminal matter and/or deal with the Halbach's getting all of his money from any underlying civil matter.
I agree with you that logically it doesn't make much sense - the grand police conspiracy. We can all agree though that the key was planted, right? We can also agree that the lab person should never, ever be told "We need you to put her in the trailer." We can also agree that legally the coroner for Manitowac County should have been brought in immediately upon finding bones in the burn pit and she should have been solely responsible for evidence collection related to the burn pit? We can also agree that the expert report related to the Dassey computer searches should have been provided to the defense?
I also think that the State's theory in the case makes even less sense than the grand police conspiracy. The only piece of tremendous evidence against him is the blood in the car IMHO. I believe it's safe to say Zellner has undermined every other piece of evidence. So I think we are left with an incomplete picture of what happened because of the shit investigation performed. I blame the State for that and you think Occam's Razor - it's Avery. I'm not saying it's not Avery, just that they did such a horrible job that reasonable doubt he should be out.
Side note, what is Avery's motive?