Bizarre Issue Out of Nowhere

[AxelDutt]

Hello fellow scooter fans! Recently on a 2-hour ride, mostly going 30-35mph, my scooter suddenly rapidly lost acceleration. This was a huge surprise as I followed the stock manual's maintenance checklist about 200 miles before that and it was running great. For some reason, it went from ~35mph to ~20mph in about 3 seconds then died entirely after another 3 seconds. Afterward, I restarted it and it would make it up to 25mph almost exactly then would die again. I tried this multiple times with the same result. I limped it staying at 20mph for about 30 minutes until a friend picked me up in a truck. I got to someplace with light and tools so I started looking at it/taking it apart. Everything seemed connected and I didn't see any leaks. Plenty of fresh oil and gas. Spark plug checked out. Idles fine with the responsive kickstarter but the electric start seems spottier than normal. I got to the CVT cover and when I took it off I noticed the clutch shoes were pretty worn off and the bell around them showed spotty contact. Ordered a new clutch assembly (not stock but a Jeremywell Driven Pulley Clutch For GY6 50cc 80cc Scooter) Everything looked the same and fit but when I took off while it seemed even it seemed more responsive than before again at ~25mph dead. I don't know where to go from here, but if you can have some sympathy for a relative newbie of scooter operation and repair I'd love to hear all your thoughts and suggestions.
Specs: 2014 Genuine Buddy 50 with about 7750 miles on it and almost entirely stock parts... thanks for reading my ramble!
Gratefully enjoying this community,
Axel

[tenders]

What about the front of the transmission (the variator) and the belt? A few hundred miles with the variator assembled with the spacers in the wrong order or missing is about right for the variator to start stripping or binding.

[Mike1nw]

Things that die intermittently make me reach for the "electrical" section of a repair manual.
To run, you need:
Gas
Air
Compression
Spark.
As far as gas, is a hose kinked? My 125 has a vacuum-operated gas valve, does your 50 have it?
I just fixed 2 generators, one had a float valve stuck shut = no gas.
Spark: battery connex tight? CDI good?
Our 125 has a worn ignition switch which makes the kill switch not work. Maybe a switch prob?
Just a few ideas here.