"Do not 'out' (reveal or attempt to reveal) the identity of another poster."
If you review a few of Steve's posts, you will see that he provided numerous clues as to his ID. Indeed, he was quite open about the matter. When I first took an interest in his posts, it was child's play to transfer his open clues to a very easy Google identification.
In any case, for such folk with the likes of his impressive background and tremendous assistance to PPRuNe discussions, I don't really think that there would be any real concern with acknowledging him in retrospect ?
However, for those who remain quick, we do not want to see identification unless the individual concerned initiates it ...