I think Hamilton doing what he did was predictable and totally understandable, and, as you infer, led to a much more interesting race. Mercedes was, IMO, wrong and stupid to issue the instructions they did. I suspect (but it's purely speculation) that their primary motivation was to publicly...
Since Hamilton failed in his attempt to get Rosberg overtaken, your assertion that no financial loss was suffered by Mercedes F1 is almost certainly correct. However, I think it's equally likely to be true that had he succeeded that Mercedes F1 would have lost sponsorship money. F1 sponsorship...