Interesting comments NMK
I had a look @ the canned ham V800, you know the one they cloned from CFMOTO

The use a sprag for the starter gear as well

funny thing huh!
Don't recall ever hearing about a failure in this area with canned ham, one thing they do that CFMOTO does not. They remove timing @ lower rpm, the reason was to dramatically reduce the lung & lurch take off......acceleration. The reason was to keep the passenger from being discharge off the rear @ engagement & inital acceleration. When you drive a canned ham you notice increased acceleration thru the power band were as others hit hard & gradually roll off.
Maybe another reason was to reduce the backwards kick as you have mentioned?