It's really not about winning or losing, it's to show that good ideas, sometimes REALLY good ideas are stifled in an academic environment. And to show that the Professors who have obscene amounts of power in college don't use it responsibly. Why give them so much power over students if they won't wield it with the public interest in mind? Especially at a public university? How could a Professor not see the potential of this idea? The student tried the limited amount of recourse he had at his disposal, and eventually gave up, and pursued the project on his own time, lucky for us.
And sometimes good ideas, really good ideas, get stifled by <significant others, bosses, industries, societies, etc...>. Reward is in the success, going back to gloat just makes you look like an ass and doesn't teach anyone anything, except maybe that you are a major dick. Was the professor in the wrong? Maybe, we have a very one sided story here, not the facts, but the facts as seen through the lens of one of the participants, one exhibiting enough childishness to make me seriously doubt their telling in which they were akin to Ghandi fighting the oppressive British Empire.
40.000 in grants? Mentioned in The Atlantic, Forbes, and US News? Sorry, but that doesn't sound impressive at all.
If you had exited for several tens of millions, or build a hundred million long-term company, that might have been something to instill some jealousy on the professor, but would still be nothing to counter an academic judgement.
But seriously, gloating is not considered good form. Showing off how effectively you gloated is even worse form.