On a normal wheel, the bearings travel a much shorter distance than the wheel.

On this wheel, the bearings travel the same distance as the wheel. That makes me wonder if the friction due to bearings is much larger in this type of wheel. I have no idea if that's an important factor or not.

(A normal wheel is, say, 700mm diameter and the bearing race maybe 20 or 30mm, so the bearing surfaces move 20 or 30 times more slowly than the bicycle. On this spokeless bicycle, the bearing surfaces move at about the same speed as the bicycle.)