Maybe I am mistaken but It seems like Ned wants to reduce the inflation but wants to keep the 2 year lock time period. The only reason a few people lock their coins for 2 years is that it is currently the only way to invest in steem without taking the crazy inflation. If you allow people to invest in steem with only 10% inflation even less people would want to lock their steem for 2 years.
Locking people's coins is as bad as the inflation, inflation currently is a barrier to invest and the lock time period is a barrier to participate ( curate) both are bad for adoption.
Steemit should reduce this period as much as possible. The idea that locking people's money will force them to stick around is totally wrong. If you want them to stick around increase their investment,increase the rewards on the platform, to achieve this you need to reduce significantly both inflation and lock time period.
Also a shorter lock time period will allow for a much faster redistribution of power