Having met and listened to Itano at a Con, I can definitely say he is in the mecha otaku camp. He didn't talk about how his missile "circus" is artistic, he wanted you to know that he had been thinking about types of seeker warheads. If Itano ever invited you to watch anime at his place, you'd need to forget moe and study military hardware 101. I haven't seen the magazine in question, but I can imagine Itano's ire regarding a Macross-themed publication that brushes off the cool tech portion.
I don't think he is being hypocritical, based off involvement in videos like Plastic Little. Having attractive characters in your anime doesn't automatically place it in the "moe" category. You wouldn't call Misa Hayase that...unless she spent half the time as a micloned chibi with ponytails.