The inflation rate is set to come down every year and the userbase should increase, so there will be a gradual rise of the value over the next 18 years (using the current data) just from that equation alone.

I'm currently in the process of analysing the process of Steem creation, but haven't yet found exactly which variable is the one that displays how much is created each day.. I continue!

The speed of the site is likely to improve I think, yes - for several reasons - part hardware and part software.