Nice post

My brief answers:

1. Yes
   1a. Higher rewards if cap is higher and vice versa
2. There is an effective rate of inflation on Steem Power comparable with BTC's - in this system tokens are designed to reward long term holders by protecting them from dilution and giving them utility within the platform. SD should remain roughly pegged to the USD. Steem will continue to fluctuate
3. The way we see it Steem will never be Bitcoin, these are complementary ecosystems more than anything
4. We looked into side chains of Bitcoin however the economics make it prohibitive to build Steem except on its own chain. Namely the economics of token distribution become too restricted and trsx fees add too much friction to UX