Saying Claudio Miranda didn't deserve the Oscar or saying that he doesn't appreciate the VFX team is ridiculous. Yes, the VFX companies are not payed enough. Yes, they shouldn't have cut off the mic. That was all wrong and unfair, but Claudio Miranda had nothing to do with it. He did his job and in the opinion of the academy, he did it better than anyone else. Though he was not filming actual sunsets, he still had to mimic the look of a sunset with his lighting. He had to mimic the look of Day, Night, Sunrise, Sunset and more, all while being limited to shooting in a water tank. A DP has to overcome a lot of obstacles throughout a production and sometimes having VFX-heavy shots make the job of the DP more difficult rather than making it easier like most people think. His job was to make those scenes look believable even though they are being shot in a water tank on a blue screen. I think he not only accomplished that, but also made the cinematography of Life Of Pi memorable.
And this is coming from a huge Roger Deakins fan haha