The only reason people are getting involved is because they know that there is a limit. Who in their right mind would invest in something that will be diluted infinitely? The price of bitcoins would still be at $0.001 if there was an infinite supply. An infinite supply mean that no matter the demand, the price is going to be tiny, because there will always be more. The current price is from people speculating on future demand given a finite supply.
Complete bullshit. DamienBlack said it right already but I'm even stronger opposed to that.
If there was a way to grant 50*1.1^time in years btc per person (that is every user would be granted 50btc for 2009, 55 for 2010, ... no matter when he joins), I would be fine with that, too. This mechanism would make bitcoin more of a currency. now it is only a store of value.
i bought at 9$ and i'm not an early adopter with thousands of btc so i value those btc i have much higher than people trade them on mtGox. on the other hand I doubt the btc will survive as a save haven for all of my savings so i'm stuck with some coins neither bold enough to buy more nor to use them at the MtGox rate. A predefined rate of infinite exponential growth would help a lot. With the money being attributed to persons, people would not turn their back to bitcoin knowing they have some fresh coins every year (month/block). unfortunately this reward per person instead of per proof of work doesn't work in an anonymous decentralized system.