I asked Gavin back in 2011 about more anonymity in bitcoin, and he didn't seem interested at all. Either he didn't understand the importance of fungibility (which is kind of related to anonymity) at the time, or maybe he still doesn't. Needless to say, I started looking for other alternatives..eventually making my way to the Monero community.
I don't think fungibility in general was ever really talked about as a concern in bitcoin until quite recently. Fungibility as a result of privacy was rarely if ever discussed before Monero, and I don't think Monero's fungibility was even realized as a "feature" until months after it was released (I could be wrong...I don't feel like reading that far back in the thread.)
I want to say it was late 2014 when it really became clear that fungibility was the real goal...not simply privacy...and that's what distinguished XMR from all the other anon players of the time.