It's not weird, it's how academia works, it's not even about competition, it's about putting in the work in a sustained manner. It's about proving if you can get funding (who do you know, how often do you publish, what type of publishing do you do), how long have you been teaching for, etc etc. In addition to experience, most institutions have specific criteria and expectations for promotion to full professorship... demonstrated record of excellence in teaching, multiple significant contributions to the field through research and active engagement in service and leadership roles within the academic community. This guy has a very very sparse resume. Just because he did one impressive thing doesn't mean anything in academia (thankfully).