Thank you very much for providing a detailed follow up!
I had always been using the same dry roll of PLA and the hot smooth PEI plate always, fine.
I washed it again with another soap, actually dish soap instead of hand soap; (thanks for the alcohol suggestion too!) I noticed that PLA-CF is very dry and has always had very high bed adhesion, so I figured if there was something in the nozzle or coating the outside nozzle tip to attract the PLA instead of the build plate, this would clean it.
After doing some prints with the PLA-CF, then going back to the same PLA roll, it seemed to have improved and hopefully I will not see it again.
Additional
I guess if there was a small block in the tip, it could make the extrusion curl around at a high flow rate too. For me, even the test extrusions would blob badly.
Also I have never been able to extrude first layer at full speed, 50 mm / s. I usually do 20 to 24 for reliability. That is with my most sticky filament, Inland regular PLA. And hot smooth PEI plate at 55 C.
Thank you!