I actually agree that there is a family of related inflation hypotheses. There are many proposed mechanisms for inflation that are consistent with the observations.
I am close to provisionally accepting inflation because of the evidence about the distribution of inhomogeneities in the very early universe, but it doesn't look like inflation is pinned down very much by the available evidence. There isn't anything that establishes the mechanism of inflation or even all the (what I consider) important details of its operation in our history. Inflation is very close to being part of the standard cosmological model, but even if it is accepted, it is much more tenuous than the rest of the cosmological model which includes expansion and primordial nucleosynthesis.
I am close to provisionally accepting inflation because of the evidence about the distribution of inhomogeneities in the very early universe, but it doesn't look like inflation is pinned down very much by the available evidence. There isn't anything that establishes the mechanism of inflation or even all the (what I consider) important details of its operation in our history. Inflation is very close to being part of the standard cosmological model, but even if it is accepted, it is much more tenuous than the rest of the cosmological model which includes expansion and primordial nucleosynthesis.