The vast majority of criminals have assets lower than their total penalties / damages payable. You're basically asking lawyers to hope that their clients will have enough money left after they have paid their damages? And you're saying defense lawyers will do that because... what... otherwise they'd have to find clients in other fields of law?

"It's actually super common to wait years for payment in tons of industries, including law."

8| No it's not, except in law for cases on contingency basis. Which only make sense in cases where there might be a huge settlement or punitive damages. There are very few companies that can even afford to wait for their money for years.

"They have plenty of money, enough to wait for some time for a payday."

I'm not sure if you're just trolling here? You seem to have a conception of the economics of running small law offices (which is what the vast majority of criminal defense lawyers are) that is massively detached from reality.