The difference in your analogy is he is currently working on an alternative (a good one imo), not only talking about it...

His product is currently out there, popular, and already infinitely better than node (imo).

I'm sorry you never "hit gold again", but you seem jaded and projecting that onto others.

Who cares if it never fully overtakes node? It's a great alternative. Competition is good.

I'd consider Deno a success already, it growing in popularity is always nice, but the tech already works.