Eliezer has not proved himself to be at the same level of the average machine learning PhD at getting things done.

He actually stated that himself several times.

So I do understand that, and I did set out to develop such a theory, but my writing speed on big papers is so slow that I can't publish it. Believe it or not, it's true.

Yes, ok, this does not mean his intellectual power isn't on par, but his ability to function in an academic environment.

As far as I know he has no experience with narrow AI research.

Well...

I tried - once - going to an interesting-sounding mainstream AI conference that happened to be in my area. [...] And I gave up and left before the conference was over, because I kept thinking "What am I even doing here?"