That's not really fair or the entire picture, he announced very early then the internet community that built up around 0x10c got really demanding and the pressure on him was pretty huge so he stepped back, I was bummed by his decision but I could see why, it did get out of hand.

EDIT: should mention others have run with the idea and are actually building it https://www.reddit.com/r/techcompliant is the subreddit for the project.