the price of steem WILL drop because of inflation regardless of what is happening on steemit. There is a 90% interest a year, so I can't see how it could increase.
I get more steem through interest during a week than I lost when I power down, which means that a whale can power down large amount of steem without even hurting the steem power they have.
Hence, they will ultimately dump those steem lowering its price...