I think you have figured this out yourself, but here's the answer
VLC calls (from your example):
Inhibitmethod of theorg.freedesktop.ScreenSaverinterface & service.
Chrome calls (from your example):
Inhibitmethod of theorg.freedesktop.ScreenSaverinterface & service.- Something else (xfce related) which makes also a call to
org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver.Inhibit Inhibitmethod of theorg.freedesktop.PowerManagement.Inhibitinterface oforg.freedesktop.PowerManagement.Inhibitservice.
So, effectively Chrome takes three inhibitor locks from two different interfaces (ScreenSaver and PowerManagement), and VLC only gets the inhibitor lock from the ScreenSaver interface. Those two interfaces are from two completely different services. Assuming the services have been implemented correctly, these work with completely different set of inhibitor locks.
The (now deprecated) org.freedesktop.PowerManagement inhibits only suspend[*] (CPU stopping), whereas org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver inhibits your system from going idle, which in practice inhibits the idle action, which usually means screensaver kicking in (usually locking and blanking the screen) and the suspend (CPU stopping).
[*]: There is a bug report for xfce-power-manager v. 1.6.1 which says that org.freedesktop.PowerManagement.Inhibit has been implemented incorrectly, and it inhibits also the screensaver (probably inhibits system going idle). As the ticket is still open, it is possible that the bug exists still in the latest xfce-power-manager (4.19).