I worked for a government research lab and it was the same, only work coming from inside the lab was respected and contractor work was looked down upon.

That's really interesting, since you were so close to Sun they actually thought you were a Sun employee!

As for how you were treated - I don't think the low-key introduction can be fully blamed. The VIP should have known that smart people exist in various places around the world, and sooner or later one does bump into them. When you meet someone knowing absolutely nothing about them (and an introduction doesn't count), and then they start talking intelligently about a topic, then you have one data point (that they have talked intelligently), and you should draw an appropriate conclusion from that. It sounds like the VIP had serious preconception issues.