@jusineh; good thought to get something like this started to get a conversation going. I will try to comment on one of the questions, simply because I think it is easier for me to answer:

Inflation- inflation is seen universally as “bad” when it’s too high. STEEM inflation is thought to be “high”.. what benefit does the inflation add (if any)? Is it high in comparison? Does that inflation also add value? How?

Inflation is not bad ("regular" amount of inflation that is). Now what is "regular" is off course up for debate. But let us hold off on that thought for a second.

Inflation is a quantitative measure of the rate at which the average price level of a basket of selected goods and services in an economy increases over a period of time.

"regular" amount of inflation is good for the economy, as it means price of your brand of car will be slightly higher next year, so may be you like to buy it now as opposed to next year. This simple action stimulates the economy. Make money flows into the system.

If there is no inflation, then we will have deflation, where your brand of car will be cheaper next year, so there is no incentive for you to buy this year, so you better keep your money with you. If everybody does that, then no one buys anything, and that throttles the economy. Classic example is Japan, which is going through a 30 + year of deflationary cycle, which essentially turned off an entire generation away from investing.

So now back to "regular" inflation: Most central bank thinks 2%-3% inflation is healthy for the economy. 15% or higher inflation is termed "hyper-inflation" where value of the currency deflates and value of good & services increases so much that it triggers a downwards circle in the economy. Classic example Venezuela now, and Zimbabwe in not too distant past.

So how is this impact steem? Steem is an economy, but with a caveat that there is no central bank controlling the monetary policy. It can be good or bad at the same time. Its good because lot of us came to crypto as we didn't like the control of the central banks. It can be bad because without governance we can literally run steem to the ground (as we are doing a fairly good job at it so far).

Therefore, some amount of governance is needed to manage inflation. There has been some efforts. Like burning steem, buying steem from the open market and powering up (thereby increasing the stake)... etc. These are good efforts, some are structural and built-in (like powering up and 13-week power down), while others are deliberate (like burning steem). However, more it needed. If you can't control inflation soon, even more important, if we can't re-direct the inflation towards good content producers, we are doomed.