The current high price of STEEM is actually hindering the platform right now I think - strange as that may sound, because the higher the price of STEEM the more it costs in STEEM Dollars to produce STEEM Power. Having a high rate of inflation in this case should at least be some kind of a break on the price rising too fast. Ideally the price should always be low enough to incentivise new people to start using the platform.
RE: whitepaper on inflation "Steem .. WILL achieve an instantaneous annual rate of approximately 12% after just 1 year"