Lorenzo Colitti is Google's IPv6 czar but when supporting IPv6 costs (hundreds of) millions of dollars, "input" is not enough. There needs to be a business case which there really isn't so far.
Vint was a trophy for the Google founders; they could, so they did. Zuckerberg no doubt got a similar thrill out of having purchased Carmack's employment.
I don't think GP comment belittles Vint. It belittles Google, for just hiring him for his name and not for his expertise. Vint is very vocal about IPv6 adaptation, yet it sounds like his opinion seems to be treated as if he was some kind of intern there. "Cool Vint, you do your stuff, publish your papers and we do our stuff".
