The Higgs field, or another field with similar properties, is exactly what we need to provide the time-dependent vacuum energy necessary for inflation; the vacuum energy originates in the unstable symmetry, and the dynamics is provided by the breaking of that symmetry.
Any quantum field will produce the symmetry breaking dynamics that create inflation. It does suggest that quantum fields are the underlying reality, possibly the most fundamental of all constructs. A primitive quantum field plus time? Eternal and infinite?
