...and John is so polarizing it would blow up the whole program to recognize him. Lots of people would no longer respect the program.

If that's indeed true, then IMO it confirms the comments of some up here, that this has more of a 'feel-good' and 'seashells and balloons' element than anything else. JVP did two great things....was a big contributor in the Fox world, and then dared to tell people how important it was to learn things beyond Fox.