That is indeed a very convincing line of thought. If staying anonymous at all cost was the goal, it would not make sense to send the first transaction to your meat space identity but if it was merely to avoid trouble with some patent claims ... plausible deniability might have been the only goal of the Nakamoto persona.

Presumably Hal's wife knows

I always have and always will think Hal was Satoshi

The other big question is why did Satoshi write in both British and American English. Attempt to conceal identity?

I've read somewhere that probably SN wasn't Hal because there was a time where Hal was running a marathon and Satoshi was posting on the forum. To me most likely person is Szabo, otherwise it was someone that was really outside of the circle at the time and no one knows who it was.