It holds water. You are being pedantic. Are they going to get sued? No - you are right.
The Pats are not required to upgrade their locker room, weight room, or family room. RK said he had no idea the players were dissatisfied. But the Pats did it. Why? Because of the preception. Same thing in this case. Are they legally required to spend to just over the limit? Yes. Did they spend over the minumum limit? Yes. Why? Because spending right over the limit is obviously "being cheap". So they went 10% over the limit. It is the same thing.
YOU are the one being pedantic. And flat out ridiculous. Not to mention complete wrong.
Kraft knew about the players being dissatisfied after the survey came out. It has nothing to do with "perception". It has everything to do with the players being f'in jaded and thinking that certain things need to be upgraded every couple of years regardless of reality.
As for the cap, The Pats regularly spent over the limit and not just by 10%. The issue here is your lack of understanding of the Salary Cap.
Do you understand how many players 30+ the Pats chose not to re-sign, cut, had retire, or they traded:
Judon (32)
Phillips (32)
Guy (34)
McDemott (31)
Slater (38)
Cody Davis (35)
Mills (30)
Trent Brown (31)
Pharoah Brown (30)
Devante Parker (31)
James Ferentz (35)
Riley Reiff (35)
Do you understand what the MINIMUM Salary is for those players vs. a Rookie this year?
As I pointed out, the Pats have 43 players on rookie deals or 1st year player deals. So that's going to leave a LOT of cap space. With the way singing bonus amortization works, they get to pay good signing bonuses with minimal impact.
Let's look at the guys who got extensions and what their 1st year cap hit is:
Onwenu - $10.9M (3yr/57M)
Henry -$5.3M (3yr/$27M)
Jennings - $3.56M (3yr/$12M)
Dugger - $7.5M (4yr/$58M)
Stevenson - $4.9M (4yr/$36M)
Godchaux - $9.63M (2yr/$18M)
Barmore - $6.3M (4yr/$84M)
Tavai - $3.45M (3yr/$16M)
Peppers -$6.97M (3yr/$25M)
Some of them have lower cap hits, like Barmore, because it's a true extension and amortized over 5 years. Others, like Henry, had a decent singing bonus and guaranteed salary for the 1st 2 years.
Also, the Pats have to leave money for LTBE bonuses. Not to mention the 52nd and 53rd players, the 16 practice squad players, the players on PUP/NFI and the 3 players who have already gone onto IR and anyone whom they think might be IRed at Cut down. I think Miguel has this number at $15M.. Not to mention the money they'll likely spend during the season for IR and such..