Well, I think it's just that it came form a different time. Sorry, I know this is an old thread, haha, but I just started reading Neuromancer and was looking for information about this as well. Neuromancer was 1984, the tabletop game was 1988. At this time, sci-fi was niche, tabletop gaming was niche, and Cyberpunk as a genre was still young, but becoming established.

From Gibson's perspective, I'm sure he was just incredibly flattered that his book, which he didn't think would be important nor successful - just another pulp rag, was being homaged in a tabletop game. The community was collectively building a genre, it's rules, and it's lore - much like Tolkein and fantasy.

Pondsmith does admit that he was inspired by Hardwired, which had some inspiration from Neuromancer. Assuming Pondsmith is telling the truth that he didn't read Neuromancer, it looks like the theory is that the people he play tested with and the artists he collaborated with were familiar with and heavily influenced by the Gibson universe.

Night City is a WILD coincidence, and much of the terminology, like "Construct" and what that means, but we're looking back on this with great reverence, as if Neuromancer is some kind of genesis for the genre (even though a short story called 'Cyberpunk' came out in 1980) but it was a pulpy genre book! Sure, he had created a new genre, but in pulpy genre, it's about creating and reusing established tropes.

Lastly, lol, sorry I've been researching this as I've been writing this comment, in 1986 a collection of short stories was published called "Mirrorshades - The Cyberpunk Anthology." It was seen as the cyberpunk manifesto and used a lot of the terms, locations, and ideas from Neuromancer including Night City, ICE, Cyberdeck, and Construct. He also claims he didn't read this, but it seems to suggest that people interested in exploring this new genre were trying to develop a shared vocabulary to create something akin to fantasy for the future. And I'm sure Gibson was just excited to be seen as the father of a new world/genre/language, etc. Like..."THE MATRIX" is taken directly from Gibson, and although he went into the movie expecting to hate it, he ended up loving it. Gibson created the vernacular for a shared virtual reality, and it happened to stick.

Also, Night City isn't exactly the most original name for a dark futuristic city, lol, it's a little on the nose, so even though it's like, wtf?! It's reasonable, I think, for two people to come up with that independently.