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Josh
Happy to help friend.
My take on the 650b debate is that as long as you keep the tyre diameter in the same ball park as standard you should be fine.
The difference between a 700x28c and a 650x47b is almost zero.
The difference between a 700x42c and a 650x47b about 25mm smaller, that’s enough to notice.
Go too small in relation to the original tyre and it all goes a bit weird.
Now to address the width thing. I’m not going all rolling resistance and shape of the contact patch etc, but you’re not riding with 47mm on the road, the extra grip is because you have extra rubber available to lean the bike over or sink into a dip, hole or rut. It’s not like you are riding on a square sided tyre. Although there is more tyre most of the time you’re not actually using it.
Tyre pressure is super important though, too much and it’s awful, too little and it’s awful as well.
The spinning up thing isn’t really a thing, because the tyre isn’t actually any smaller, see about. The smoothing effect of the higher volume is though and even more so if you have a supple tyre.
You’ll be slower, but not as much as you’d think.