I think 3% is too conservative a place to start. I don't believe the risk of the market overvaluing HBD is as big as you think it is, and the HBD stabilizer can mitigate that to an extent as well (while creating extra buy pressure for HIVE as well). I've set my rate (as a backup witness) to 5%.
RE: Why I set my witness HBD interest rate parameter to 3%