“It involves a tax that must ultimately be paid anyway, and simply changes the timing of when part of it is paid. “
I don’t think that is right. When you inherit something, the basis generally steps up to the value at the time you received it. This makes sense because otherwise we would be taxing estates twice - through the inheritance tax and through the capital gains tax. It is true there is a big exemption on the inheritance tax but keep in mind that the exemption applies regardless of the number of heirs (so if you have ten kids each receiving 1/10th of the farm, they have to pay the same tax / same exemption as where there is an only child.
That’s a good point. I was keeping the estate/inheritance tax separate in my mind, and didn’t see the implications here.