I think the yearly double comes from interest earned on steem power, and accrues incrementally. It continues to double at a rate of one double per year until it reaches 10X, then it cuts down to the original levels. SO if you start with 100 steampower, youll have 200 after a year, 400 after 2 years 800 after 3 years.. then when it gets to 1000 some time in the third year. it reduces back to the initial 100
Im not sure how you protect yourself from the 1/10th splitting... maybe by powering down.

Your problem with understanding inflation is that there really is no inflation. That's a term that applies to money, not commodities like Steem. I really kind of wish the white paper didn't play into this as much as it does, but i think the founders were trying to address objections they knew the crypto-monkeys on bitcoin forums were going to bring up.