Since all of these machinations would have taken place during a period of prehistory, before the rapid expansion of space we call the big bang, there was no one hanging around, arms crossed and shoe tapping, waiting for inflationary expansion to ignite. So let the inflationary preshow run as long as it takes. It is only when the statistical fluke of a uniform inflaton patch happens to happen that things finally change: the big bang is sparked, space inflates, and the cosmological performance begins.
