> the theory for that was developed in 1957 by an Italian physicist who defected to the Soviet Union. (No Nobel Prize!)

This was Bruno Pontecorvo, Enrico Fermi's student and early collaborator. One defected to USSR, another to the USA

> It was Alan Guth's answer to survival in the physics hiring drought of his time.

Credit where credit is due: Andrey Linde's contribution to Inflationary Cosmology cannot be overstated.