The term coined to describe "Clear Coat Paints" is "Scratch-Sensitive". What this means is modern clear coats are harder than traditional single stage paints, (the only two types of paint categories we've had since we all stopped riding on horses), and it is this hardness factor that enables the paint to "last a long time", but that doesn't mean "look good a long time".
You can have a scratched up clear coat last a long time and look horrible because it resists breaking down via oxidation like single stage paint do.
So test first.
Thing is if you have above surface bonded contaminants, sooner or later you have to "touch" the paint in order to remove them, the key thin is finding a way to touch the paint safely. IF your paint scratches easily, then you might have to polish the paint after claying, you won't know until you do some testing and inspecting.
Keep in mind, we don't make the paint, paint manufacturers make paint. Maybe someday someone from a paint company will get on a forum like this, understand how "consumers" feel about clear coat paints and start making paints that are easy to work on.
If you read enough of my posts you'll see I always post about how much I enjoy and prefer to work on single stage paints as do most people once they have the chance and that's because single stage paint is easy to work on. Modern clear coats are a tick on the difficult side in comparison. The good news is that there are now more products using new technology that makes working on clear coats easier than ever.
It used to be you needed both skill and experience to buff out a clear coated paint job and make it look good, now with foam pads, modern abrasive technology in the compounds and polishes, and tools like DA Polishers, anyone can create a show car finish their first time machine polishing.
Proof You Can Do It! - Joe The Detailer - Black Porsche Turned into Black Pearl!
This is not true when it comes to doing the same kind of thing by hand. I've posted this before and here it goes again...
Working by hand actually takes a lot more skill to get great results than working with a DA Polisher like the Porter Cable and Griot's Garage units, or the Meguiar's units.
You can try removing aboves surface bonded contaminants using a paint cleaner of some type but these don't always work because if the contaminants have a strong bond to the paint the paint cleaner and your hand applicator or your buffing pad on a machine will simply
glide over them.
Claying is the most
effective way to remove above surface contaminants in most cases. Any fallout results are just the nature of the beast and characteristic of the way paint manufactures formulate the paints car manufacture use to spray on your car.