Because it gets you to the weld index in a more profound way. sudden friction is very common in bearing and it is a result of high temperature or wear debris..
The envelope method in conventional mechanical bearing analysis can investigate what exactly happen with the component of the bearing (for example ball, separator, etc.). In plain bearing in my opinion could be also connected with the kinematic of the plain bearing. I suggest do spectrum with using envelope method and after that try investigate in the spectrum peak responsible for oil, elasticity, etc.