By design, Bitcoin is not an inflation hedge; like you have said, it was not mentioned in the whitepaper as an inflation hedge. However, the realities on ground have positioned Bitcoin as the currency that have withstood inflation. The value of Bitcoin have remained favorably high against almost all fiat currencies. Think of it from the angle of an investor, and let us say you have some funds 5 years ago and you decided to save some in the banks and the other you converted to Bitcoin and stored safely. Today you decided to check what both savings can get you, only to realize that the money in the bank has depreciated in value... assuming it could buy you a car then and today you realized it cannot. On the other hand, the amount you converted to Bitcoin, could buy you a car together with a house. It is therefore, very correct if someone in this situation say that Bitcoin is an inflation hedge.
It is expected that Bitcoin will even gain more traction in coming years because many
Seeing from the situation that occurs there is no standard rule that says bitcoin as an inflation hedge but in this case we must also be aware that bitcoin can be one of the fiat hedges and that I have indeed felt on the other hand regardless of whether this is an inflation hedge or not I actually don't really care because I run from what I believe in and bitcoin for several years has been my belief in investment despite all the debates that exist I just do what I think is right by being in bitcoin.
Btw on the other hand when talking about bitcoin and hedging I've read some actually pretty good research that some people have done.
There are 2 versions where one is the local language of my country and the other one can be read universally because it uses English.
You can read it if you are interested.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1057521918307622file:///C:/Users/siganteng/Downloads/360-Article%20Text-1400-2-10-20230109.pdf