IIRC he really started with that when there was an agenda push to cut the emission by half because some of the original investors felt they we not profiting fast enough.
Not the emissioned coins but how fast they would be emitted. So 18 million XMR and tail emission would not be be started in 2022 but 8 years latter. Very soon was decided that changing emission schedule would be unfair. And should be only done before first coin was mined.