Sometimes you can't fix stupid.

Let's set aside the limits on liability for now and try to handhold you through the process.

You have to understand there are multiple entities that may share some responsibility. They all have various claims that will be made by multiple plaintiffs. This will likely result in protracted complex litigation in multiple courts around the globe. Companies and insurance carriers won't be paying out for years because they are not going to pay until the claims are made, verified, and likely litigated. Starting to pay out now would potentially put them at risk of higher liability.

The channel and Key bridge are both important to interstate and intercountry commerce. As a result, the channel needs to be cleared and the bridge needs to be rebuilt as quickly as possible. The channel is close to being cleared (they have opened smaller channels already) but the bridge will still take a long time. Waiting for the monies from companies and insurance to be paid would have a significant lasting effect on commerce. It only makes sense for the government to front the money and get the projects rolling, anything else would be beyond stupid.

A less than perfect analogy would be if a company using a rental truck knocked over a power pole and it crashed into your roof and opened a 15x20 foot hole in your roof. In this case, you are self-insured. If it was clear it would take years before the various responsible entities would pay the claims would you just sit there with a hole in your roof? Provided you had the money to effect repairs you would do it. You wouldn't like it but it would be the only sane thing to do. At some point, you would get whatever portion of the liability paid by the companies/insurance.

Ship ownership, operators, and liability are not straight forward and in this case there are 100s of plaintiffs with the federal government and Baltimore port being just two of them. All of this is set in the shadow of The Limitation of Liability Act of 1851. You don't have to understand it but one way or another you have to accept someone has to front the money for the channel and bridge repairs or it won't start for years. It is unlikely the government or any one of the plaintiffs will get dollar for dollar compensation for their losses. While you see this as an obtuse take it is actually acute for someone that has the slightest understanding of what has and will go on in the legal realm.

If you want to continue to play Don Quixote at least lay out how you think things should proceed.