My point being that the gift doesn't happen if we wait for the hard fork. Assuming the hard fork goes ahead at the end of June, the exchanges will get about $25,000 in interest this month with this increase.

I do see a benefit in getting ahead of the hard fork for the sake of marketing - it would be better to generate some attention towards Hive Dollars alongside the upcoming hard fork so that the point of the savings interest is not lost (if 3% interest is mentioned in articles about the hard fork crypto speculators will see it as a joke).