So Symmetric (ex. Ratimov) went to the full length of lodging a request with a site administrator just to change his username? AFAIK this is the only way it's possible to be done outside of being a VIP (50 BTC donation).
And it was granted just like that? Uhhh... Weird but ok.

I know a handful of members who were able to change their usernames upon making a request to the Administrator. It's not something automatic, but it's possible if someone making the request has valid reasons even if they were not VIP. From the administrative point of view, I don't see anything odd. From a user point of view… Well well well...
I'm jealous lol! It's been 6 months since I asked to change my username to the admins!