Inrush takes place on starting a motor. The only way a plug will see motor inrush is if the feeder/receptacle is energized and the plug going directly to the motor is inserted. This is also covered in the rating of a HP rated device. if you have a plug that does not have a HP rating, you cannot use it this way, so no, it will not be designed to handle this. However if your plug is rated for the HP of the load, it's fine. Not a good idea, but technically capable. If already plugged in when something else turns it on, the concerns over inrush /starting current are no different than for a conductor. Do you size a conductor for inrush?
But inrush isn't the biggest problem, drawing an arc by pulling a plug under load is the thing you need to be concerned about, and doing so on an inductive load is especially hard on the device because the inductance of the motor sustains the arc longer, causing more heat and surface damage. Having that HP rating takes that into account and the pins and sleeves will have more material and different treatments to deal with it, or again, the Meltric type system uses a spring loaded set of contacts inside, just like a contactor.