"I actually did this kind of backwards. I had to write all the code before I could convince myself that I could solve every problem, then I wrote the paper. I think I will be able to release the code sooner than I could write a detailed spec."
- Satoshi
https://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-November/014832.html
My impression of Satoshi's work is that he felt his way intuitively to the object / pattern / ruleset / system that is Bitcoin "through his hands", by working on the code, molding it like a potter molds clay. This quote from one of his posts confirms my impression.
I'd say that this is a point in favor of Aristotle over Plato.
Plato emphasized forms, theory, the abstract - Aristotle, his student, believed that what emerged from practice, the concrete, was more reliable...
There wasn't a rational path to Bitcoin - it wasn't something that you could reason your way to from earlier theories.
This is more like Schrödinger's equation - out from the unconscious.