I hadn't heard that iconel was worse to machine than titanium, but machining titanium was a much bigger pain in the ass. You have to be very careful about your metal chips when machining titanium because they can ignite.
According to the machinability ratings [1], Inconel 700 is rated at 0.09 (less is harder) and Inconel 702 at 0.11, while most of the Titanium alloys are above 0.15. There's a single Titanium alloy family (MST) in the table that is just as hard to machine as Inconel 700.
So, you're technically correct: generally, they are on the same scale. And your argument about ignitability is certainly true.
