I agree with your point in general within fields that are a proven success, but as discussed many times on HN, there's no reason to believe current ML/"AI" approaches have much to do with AGI, so it's not obvious what would be gained by him or anybody else investing years in barking up the same barren research tree.

It even makes it clear in the title he's seeking a "different path".

In his favour he's a proven success in different fields; personally I think he's too old to come up with the new ideas needed - that's a young person's game.

But perhaps he can do it as a team lead - and it won't be by following the failed-over-decades path of our current academic gatekeepers.