He didn't set out to build the empire that he did--he really wanted independence for one person (and it just turned out that what we built was so good that lots of people wanted it). He doesn't want to be in the limelight. So, as the article mentioned, he's chosen to focus on philanthropy and art and just watches our business from afar. He's a smart, great guy.
Regardless of his original motives, he must really be proud that a huge bunch of people would agree that in the MS DOS world and the world thereafter, he was a big hero who produced terrific utilities and terrific books...stuff that many people learning about computers were utterly fascinated by and could in turn use that knowledge to create their own cool stuff. Where would people have been with a creaky OS but without UnErase, Speed Disk, Disk Doctor, Disk Editor, Ghost and many others? :)
If you're in touch with him, do convey the wishes and regards from a whole community of hackers. :)