Vitalik is not clever at all, he's a naive kid. He's just being exploited by a group of ruthless bankers who get to pump a wunder-kid 'back-story', while painting a $1.5 billion target on Vitalik's head ... and they can disappear when it collapses and Vitalik get's left with the fallout, if he survives that long.
I have to admit I find the cult of personality surrounding the guy sort of odd - he's all elbows. If I were him I'd want to start to distance myself from the whole thing.
Does anyone know the ins-and-outs of the switch to POS? Does the Ethereum Foundation just decide? Really??