He's not the one suing, he's the one being sued; he doesn't exactly have the option to just drop it. He'd either have to settle or go to court. And, well, he's a very prideful (and stupid) man who doesn't want to admit he did something wrong. Meyer would likely require some admission of fault on Waid's part as a condition of settlement, so settlement probably isn't an option he'd consider. So court it is, with all the money he's burning to do so.
I think it's safe to say that there's almost no way this is the more financially prudent decision. He could probably have settled this for under $100K and an apology, and he'd have to have spent more than that already, with still a trial (and a potential judgement) still to go.