I think we can make the argument, but I kinda suspect it won't happen. Once Satoshi does that there is no turning back. i don't know, but I suspect he values his anonymity (although that really puts a high price on it).
I'm assuming of course that we can identify his "stash".
I'm pretty sure one of two things will happen:
a.) those coins will never be spent - instead they will be used to back a new currency in the future: e-dollars: each centrally issued e-dollar is backed by one satoshi of bitcoin.
b.) Bitcoin becomes such a clusterfuck of infighting that it becomes an unsustainable network, and meanwhile cryptonote is threatening to eclipse bitcoin - at once we see a dramatic sell off of the Satoshi assets in bitcoin and large buys of Monero from every exchange. It would be a very expensive statement to make, but it would be a loud one.