Is that a question dodge? I mean he's in the unique position that people do trust Ethereum in part because of him, but he really wants people to trust in the protocol and its evolution over just himself.

Personally, if Vitalik wasn't involved in Ethereum I probably wouldn't have been as interested in the project initially. But, for Ethereum to really take off in the public realm, the cryptocurrency and its creator need to be decoupled more. And I think this response from Vitalik gets this point across.