For the short-term suddenness, he surely is the beneficiary of Catherine jumping/getting pushed. Absent that, you have to think he would still be in a line of sorts.
George had a reputation for being .... how should I say this .... not the most adept on the business/detail side of things. He was never going to be a Burbank guy... Josh on the other hand has always seemed like he was destined to end up there in some capacity.
The further back suddenness of his rise (like... VP of AK back when Pandora was half as expensive as it turned out to be, VP of AbD when its total revenue was a less than a rounding error on a WDW project) is what I would think other execs would look at with a disdainful eye. Not to either open a can of worms or suggest anything untoward (100% not where I'm going with this), but he had someone who didn't have top-of-the-peak aspirations pulling him along and mentoring him. That person is not George.