That's plenty money for one person without the liability and the publicity. You can live a life in pure luxury and fulfill all your material wishes.
Maybe he lost the keys or threw away the machine after a year or two. There's nothing to be gained from going public in this case but a massive threat to your life.
He could have sent his BTC to zero address.
Still worth a lot, obviously.
Like, get a loan for $20b in a stablecoin with the payback being $21b in btc in a year?
While you could sign a message with your key, you would still need something that accepts the proof but isn’t public, which might be possible with a properly structured/constructed smart contract, maybe?
It would be a great deal for Satoshi, but no other party would accept.