However, they also paid dividens which benifited a select few the most and made countless blunders

Ok, let's try this a different way. PTSC now had the cash available to remove S&L's warrants/convertibles and liens on the patents. Put yourself in S&L's position. You are there to make money for your investors. Are you going to say, please accept them for free or try to maximize your return?

The BoD could have negotiated a settlement with S&L whereby existing shareholders were excluded from any return on their investments, or, as they did, also return cash to shareholders as well.(Dividends are taxable, a return of cash is not).

Were I S&L, I would have held out for a much better deal in the full knowledge that not only did I have the best hand, I also had all the cards.

The details were publicly available.

Should S&L have been allowed to fund PTSC when it was fighting for its survival is a decision down to each individual investor as is was any other form of funding available at more favorable terms. It was the EXECUTIVE members who authorized the deal, with oversight by the non-executives, and their full knowledge of the circumstaces has to be trusted.

So, in S&L's position just how much would you have wanted?

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Be well