Did timing make Kimmel uniquely unlucky?

Was Kimmel simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Partly, but his task-force rotation kept the carriers at sea, preventing an even more damaging concentration inside Pearl Harbor.

Kimmel was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the fleet's disposition was not passive. He rotated three task forces and normally kept both carrier groups outside Pearl Harbor. On another day a carrier group might have been in port and the battleships at sea. Losing the carriers would have removed the Pacific Fleet's principal means of response for months, so the rotation materially limited the strategic damage.