These are people that, at one point, but not necessarily now, had that amount of coin in their possession. I've never really been a fan of these lists because they contain both a voyeuristic aspect and they infer trust when it might not be warranted.
he's the kind of guy who doesn't want to get caught, everybody is watching those blocks, if spent, his identity will be revealed in no time. He probably bought coins in 15,000 chunks on the early days and living on that instead.
There are ways around this if you trust the right individuals within the Bitcoin community, honestly. Additionally, virgin coin would probably sell at a premium. It's not like people are going to torture trusted members of this community just to find out Satoshi's identity. It'd be really hard to do that and get away with it.
I think you are correct though, it'd just be easier to buy thousands of coin early on and then quit your day job after a few years and act like you were just an "early adopter" like everyone else.