You’re right. He was found guilty of calling an ugly woman ugly.
I think the jury in the E. Jean Carroll case was, like the jury in the George Floyd “murder” case, intimidated. The fact that they could find defamation gave them an out. There were probably some jurors who opposed any penalty, and some who wanted to hang Trump, but the defamation was the compromise verdict. If he did not rape her, none of the other accusations make sense. Some of the jurors compromised, and most likely out of fear of reprisal.