Ok, firstly Richards been on the lsland forever. A normal (pre S4) flashback of him could well explain anything in the islands history, irrelivent of whether time skipping is still occuring.
Secondly Walt is guest starring in the next ep. He is important, just as Desmond is important, they will be brought back to the island.
@Tyranical, French crew did not call smoke monster a security system. My theory, they were already dead and they became "zombies" like Christian Shepard and eventually John Locke. The island told Danielle it was a security system. Remember that Dave could physically interact with the characters. Danielle can shoot her crew dead (really dead) but that didn't mean they were actually "alive".
“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.
