It's easy to read too much into the title

Fair enough.

Regarding the effects of HBD on the inflation rate: although in theory it can go either way the 4+ year history of steem/hive shows that it leans heavily on the negative side. The average annual inflation has been between 14% and 16% (not counting the period before the December 2016 hardfork which reduced it from 100% to 10%).

In my view any conversation about reducing the inflation (even if it is only a side note to the main topic) that does not address the major contributor to the deviation from what is programmatically supposed to happen kind of misses the point.

I am not trying to be hostile but you have to admit that the title is somewhat clickbaitty.