First let me say that the PF of retirement planning/investing/etc is a site called bogleheads.org ... it's THE place to go for those topics.
Inflation is absolutely something retirees need to consider - for example, if you have a pension or annuity that isn't fully COLA'd, you need to carefully consider what happens if a late 70's/early 80's inflation bump comes along.
I'm just saying that the '4% rule' assumes you take 4% of the balance in year 1, and *increase that amount each year to match inflation*; the historic inflation is already baked in.
Here is a relevant page from the bogleheads wiki:
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Safe_withdrawal_rates