This is one interesting point you made, which I think should be discussed heavily:

"Sure, steem generates demand based on investment prospects and the unique utility of the platform (and I'm sure for other smaller reasons). But to continue reward payouts there needs to be a reason for a broader user base to buy in, otherwise the steem inflation will drive the price down. For the average person buying steem now and powering up that translates into basically no voting power. So where will the new investment come from?"

My question is this first, is speculation and investment the same thing to you?

Also, Steem inflation is supposed to be counterbalanced by the fact that most Steem is locked up as vests, plus the fact that dilution from SP holders also goes into payment of rewards, or can be calculated that way.

What do you think? You are much better at the number crunching part of this than I am.