The original suggestion of deleting inactive characters definitely isn't going to happen as there's no real reason to do that.

A name purge, on the other hand, would be pretty much in line with other MMOs and I wouldn't be surprised if it happens sooner or later. Sure, technically there are almost infinite name combinations that people can use, and nobody is entitled to any particular name. But it's a negative experience when a new player tries to create a character and every name they come up with is taken, even those from the in-game generator.

I'd expect that players would be notified well ahead of time so they would have the chance to log into their accounts/characters before inactive characters' names would be put up for grabs. After that, if you're not using the name and you don't care enough to log in and show you still want it, it seems reasonable for SE to let someone else have it.