I think the judges are a reflection of the broader engineering community, and there are big differences in how different parts of the engineering community view the patent system. Look at the background of some of the judges. They're Chem/Bio/EE and worked at places like American Cyanamid and the Naval Surface Warfare Center. My own background is in aerospace engineering and the defense industry, and my experience has been that engineers in these industries view patents very positively. The first think that comes to these engineers' minds when talking about patents isn't Amazon's double click patent, but the patents on vulcanized rubber or HDPE.
More generally, people don't become federal judges because they want a payout. A court of appeals judge makes about $185,000, or about what a third-year law firm associate makes before bonus. And unlike many other civil service jobs, a judgeship is a capstone to a career so it's not like judges use the judgeship as a stepping-stone to a lucrative private-sector position. They are by and large people who genuinely care about overseeing a justice system that facilitates the orderly activity of the economy.
More generally, people don't become federal judges because they want a payout. A court of appeals judge makes about $185,000, or about what a third-year law firm associate makes before bonus. And unlike many other civil service jobs, a judgeship is a capstone to a career so it's not like judges use the judgeship as a stepping-stone to a lucrative private-sector position. They are by and large people who genuinely care about overseeing a justice system that facilitates the orderly activity of the economy.