There was no victory, for either side, default or not. The case was remanded for lack of information.
Read my post #31. Many important SC cases do not involve the SC rendering a final decision in the case, but this in no way invalidates the SC’s holding in the case on the points of law it addressed in its published opinion. When they remand a case to a lower court with specific instructions on how to interpret a question of federal law (which includes Constitutional law), that is the SC’s official, binding interpretation of the law. Lower courts do not have any option to void a SC decision on a question of law — not by plea bargaining with the defendants to drop the case and avoid further lower court proceedings, nor by any other technique.