Apologies for quoting the [long] OP since nobody else had to date. Nice write-up, bud. Almost puts my James Simons theory to rest, but I can still see him backing Bitcoin's creation, using Mike and perhaps Hal and Nick Szabo as the voice of SN, the latter, NS, being the main voice.
Why apologize for quoting? Why would you feel the need to quote it too? I don't care that you did, just curious why.
Link to your theory? I am always interested in other peoples ideas of who Satoshi could be. I don't know who James Simons is. I have never come across his name. I definitely think Hal could be involved with Mike. Nick Szabo definitely has the same missing online presence as Mike Hearn during Satoshi's online life. However, I am not convinced Nick Szabo was involved. If Szabo created bit gold before, why would he originally call bitcoin electronic-cash then change it to Bitcoin? I believe Nick probably would have called it that from the beginning or not called it that at all since it does sort of link the 2 projects together in name.
Also, I think it was Wei Dai or Adam Back that said Satoshi had no idea about Nick Szabo's bit gold. This definitely makes sense that Satoshi would change the name to Bitcoin after he discovered Bit Gold just months before Bitcoin was released.