What seems to have been lost in all this discussion, is the fact that virtually all petrol engines have to run at high speed to obtain the quoted horsepower.
Horsepower is the product of Torque (ft/lbs) x Revs divided by 33000. Therefore the 100 hp quoted in the specs is only obtained at roughly 6000 Rpm.
At normal operating speeds, circa 2000-3000 Rpm it is doubtful whether even 50 Hp is generated, hence the need for CVTs or manual gearboxes to operate at a ratio to suit those parameters, if you want to obtain maximum performance.
Quite obviously the CVT has an advantage here since the transmission is continuously variable and is able to facilitate the running of the engine at optimum speed, to obtain the required power.
Yes there are occasions when you will be running the engine at 5000 maybe 6000 RPM, but it is designed to do exactly that, without any harm.