Personally, I don't see the point of Steem Power. It's a peculiar artifact from the hyperinflation days that today does nothing but bad PR and make the system unnecessarily complicated.

I think many disagree with you here. Other projects like Augur REP and DAOs have time-lock contracts for the very same reasons steemit has one.
Others are right to point out that steem has a crazy inflation rate and that Steem Power is important to avoid some of that influence. Liquid steem is still the valuation point of the network.