Considering what was happening at that time (GA's visit to three letters agency, donations BTC to WikiLeaks, and the increasing dissatisfaction of certain people with the way he works), I think that those other things were just an excuse to get away from everything. Maybe he knew it was inevitable given what he had created, because a decentralized cryptocurrency cannot have a CEO pulling all the strings.

Maybe he planned to disappear, but some people sped up the process so he left much earlier than he planned.