the whole fact that EVERYONE involved with btc claims to have never met "satoshi" but only communicated with "him" though this forum or email does seem strange to me. If you read about edward snowden he used similar tactics (he was a CIA agent) to hide his identity until he knew it was safe to talk to the journalists he was communicating with.
Then again, maybe they all have met satoshi and are just saying they "never met him" to keep the whole secrecy thing in tact
I think we are overthinking this, a couple years ago on a forum there was a guy who acted just like that. Nobody knew his real name or any information and he only communicated via forums and occasionally email. Some people are very concerned about their privacy.
Yes, lots of people value their privacy, but to go to those lengths that "satoshi" did to keep his identity private to those he was WORKING DIRECTLY WITH and handing over the control of the forum/ control of bitcoin seem far fetched. I mean at the time it was such a relatively obscure project with few users, why go to such lengths to hide your identity? There's no way he could have known it would get this big.