They put the spotlight on the widespread disdain for security exhibited by major corporations regarding their client's data?
That was the core message between the lulz. That said, dumping the full data was not necessary to make that point, even though it probably increased the media coverage, hence the spread of their message.
But the lulz were so loud that I could not hear the core message. They were certainly not primarily activists. At best, that was a scant moral cover for what was basically mass vandalism.
On the one hand, I don't feel too bad for trolling you, since your comment basically glorifies the same activity. Lulz and all that.
On the other hand, I feel that you should understand why your comment is not smart. "X bad/useless activity is better than Y bad/useless activity, therefore X is ok" is always a stupid argument.
That was the core message between the lulz. That said, dumping the full data was not necessary to make that point, even though it probably increased the media coverage, hence the spread of their message.