Back when I was playing records I never heard any difference after cleaning but I had a Discwasher and I occasionally used
Discofilm which is applied as a gel and then it "dries" to something like dense Jell-O and you peel it off, hopefully taking the dust & dirt with it. (It was available in the U.S. in those days.)
And, I had (and still have) a Shure cartridge with a built-in brush.
I think the main "theory of cleaning" is that the record gets damaged when the stylus pushes the dust around in the grooves it causes damage so cleaning is preventive.
I think that theory is that the stylus normally pushes dirt "safely" out of it's path and then cleaning can move the dirt around to where it makes more noise. The same "theory" applies to wet-playing... The water (or water-based fluid) lifts the dirt and it later settles back into the grove in a worse place. So, "they say" once you wet-play you have to continue to wet-play.