Ok, maybe, but it was also a transaction made by someone that never believed bitcoin would be worth very much. Just like all the 50 btc VIP forum members. Either that or all the VIP members really did want to spend $50,000 to impress a bunch of strangers.
man, i dunno. it's so hard to put yourself into the mind of someone who was around back then. the level of legitimacy today would seem like 100 years in the future 5 years ago.
and pizza guy paid next to nothing in electricity for those coins so why not try doing something real world with it? i think i read somewhere he mined something like 120,000 coins.