I think this is a presumption that is not valid and is far from being proven. The fact that Steem is not well known could have a lot more to do with the lack of investment than the inflation rate.
Steem has been the TOP 3 ranked cryptocurrency at one point. Clearly, Steem should be very well known by now. And I would even argue that most people heard about it. (at least those that were around in that timeframe)
Once again, you are saying the barometer people are using in buying these tokens is the inflation rate. It might be in a few instances but most buyers do not know what the inflation rate is. Do you think most Ethereum buyers realize the inflation rate there is potentially unlimited? Yet it is a top 5 token.
I didn't say that inflation rate is everything that matters, but it's clearly one thing investors look at if a specific coin has investment potential. I could give you the example of BNB, which has a deflationary model. Let me quote:
To achieve scarcity, Binance uses 20% of its quarterly profits to buy back and destroy (“burn”) BNB tokens up until 100 million BNB tokens have been burned. This deflationary supply mechanism naturally increases the value of the token. Source
In you scenario, if one thought BTC was going to 100X and STEEM 500X, which do you think would be preferred? Do you think the inflation rate would even matter in that instance?
What kind of question is that? The chance of STEEM going to 1 cent is far higher than BTC going to 250$. So even if I would think STEEM could go higher, the risk is far bigger to invest in STEEM than in BTC.