There is an informal honour's code among scientists that you don't take credit for other people's ideas. While it is forgivable for a PhD or postdoc to be unaware of older work -- after all there's sooo much of it -- a senior researcher should not act carelessly with attributions. And where they do, it's useful to remind them that they have transgressed dearly held ethical norms.

It depends on what you mean by status. His papers are cited 13,493 times. And that's what matters to most scientists.