Maybe I need a reality check.
99% of ebikers probobally ride stock kits or bikes that go 20-25 mph. Whether legal or not in a given jurisdiction to go 20mph most are not getting tickets. In my town, cops completely ingore me since I stop at stop signs and don't ride the wrong way up the street. They seem to ingore regular bikes that do that stuff too. Pretty much, they pay attention when you ride under somebodies wheels and that's it for my town.
That leaves the 1% ers, Us on the Sphere. Lots of us are running 48v, many are running 72 and some 100. But who's getting tickets? Nobody really. One guy in New York, but there ebikes are completely illegal. So my perception of high volt ebikes ruining it for the rest may be completely false so far. This kind of bike is pretty expensive, so the young dumb crowd may just gravitate to the used motorcycle option which is cheaper and faster.
So I'll back down from my pulpit about what voltage you want to run on the street. I just find that personally I never need more than 25 mph, on my route, in my town. But if moped legal speed was 35, I bet I'd ride that speed.
But I will repeat what I said about route selection. Bike lanes are nice, but there are quite a few in my town that I consider a stupid choice of route. An adjacent street with houses is safer than the commercial street with the bike lane. And guess what, speed limit in the houses is 25. Don't drive my car faster there either. I think it's safer to be patient and stop if you must to stay safe, rather than rely on speed to squirt through a tight spot. I ride the motorcycle or drive the car the same way. But stopping can cause a problem too, so again, route selection helps. Where some people live, and where they need to go may make any kind of bike a bad choice or a good one.
I totally agree that any bike, motorcyle, etc is invisble at all times to most car drivers and ride accordingly. I've never been hit by a car, but till I slowed down, I did hit a few at my own fault.