Do you feel it's likely that he's created something that works and rather than using or elaborating upon his work, and thus bettering their own career, everyone has thought, "Wait a second, isn't this the Palm Pilot guy?" and discarded the idea?

Instead of just cutting out the middle bit of getting a PhD, becoming a professor, setting up a research lab, and mentoring students for decades, and leaping straight to "make a startup from an idea that works", every single person decided to go the hard road because it seems proper?

Your cargo cult idea works - he's arranged all the trappings of being an influential theorist - funding and research labs and media coverage - except perhaps for the one thing that lets him fly: a worthwhile idea.