I reckon the bad reputation, or at least mistrust, of CVTs may date way back to the little Daf motors built in the Netherlands many years ago. The Dutch model of CVT was remarkably simple consisting, essentially, of rubber bands sliding up and down rotating cones in the “gearbox”. They were “variable” in practice as well as design. People seemed to think they did not work well – if Honda did not call it a CVT but made up another name instead I don’t think there would be a problem?