User blog comment:CoolJazzman/Why do you think Yamamoto wasn't giving a promoted to become a royal guard./@comment-8295743-20130417035134

I don't think the Spirit King would have promoted him. Who would run things? And towards the end of his life, he seemed fairly weak. I don't think he was strong enough. The Royal Guard is supposed to be stronger than the whole of the Gotei 13 combined. He was unable to defeat Sosuke Aizen, and Ywach(Is that what the Vandenreich leader is called?) states he wasn't as strong as he was a thousand years ago.

He was where he could do the most. Probably was there longer than he should have been, but that's just the opinion of one fan.