If you are wondering "Where does the Kim Davis thing go from here?"...

[jberryhill]

21. They had wanted her fined for contempt

...because otherwise you have the odd situation of the ACLU looking to have someone locked up. I'm not sure if that's ever happened before, but it struck me as a minor irony.

I agree that attorney fees are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but that's true in a lot of civil rights cases where the main point is obtaining injunctive or declaratory relief. As noted in passing in the OP, that's more or less why it's built into the statute. Otherwise, a lot of civil rights cases wouldn't be pursued.