I don't have any doubt that this was all just big pump and dump, but my theory is, even the BTC creators didn't realize that Bitcoin would go this far.
No, not really. People tend to forget that bitcoin was not worth anything during its early stage. How exactly you expect that Satoshi knew it will become popular.
If creation of bitcoin was only a pump scheme aimed for eating a lot of money fast, then why Satoshi did not dump his coins?
There are a lot of contradictions and unproven facts in 'pump & dump theory' for it to be viable.