A logical reason to care about intent is that malicious people will likely do it again and can not be trusted in the future where as people who make a mistake will avoid doing it again
For a corporation, "avoiding doing it again" means dedicating resources to preventing a repeat of that type of "mistake": audits, privacy reviews, etc.
The choice not to dedicate those resources up front was an intentional one.
That's like saying there's not a difference in involuntary manslaughter and murder.
There is. Intent is very important. That's WHY so many people focus on the intention.