This thread really has me thinking about my long journey on detailing forums for the last 20 years. 20 years ago the main topics of discussion seemed to be:
1. How to get swirls out of clearcoat with the rudimentary (in comparison to now) machines and polishes of the day, without having to resort to a rotary (which scared most of us, not to mention there weren't the lightweight rotaries of today)
2. Which LSP was going to last the longest and provide protection from bird poop etc., and last through the winter, for those of us in the north. This thread reminds me of that.
There was endless discussion about "beauty" waxes, and "hard" waxes like Meg's #16, and what we now know to be hybrid waxes like the Collinites, vs. the relatively new sealants. A common winter strategy was to lay down a base of sealant and then top with a wax (which lead to endless discussion of whether the "wax" was removing the sealant during application/removal). Many discussions about how you could put a wax over a sealant, but not sealant over a wax, how best to remove "wax" so you could put a sealant down, etc.
One of the things we didn't realize then when evaluating LSP's back then, was that we were experiencing "clogging", but we didn't know it. Thanks are in order to a couple of members, one who disappeared (PiPUK) and one who doesn't post much anymore (swanicyouth), for later on (2013) proving that clogging of LSP's was a thing:
Sealant Test: PowerLock (+/-) BlackHole, Wolfgang DGPS, & BlackFire WD
LSP stripping
So back 20 years ago, people might Dawn wash their car and get no beading after, and think they stripped their wax. Or they would try a new wash that had a lot of sheeting agents in it to prevent water spotting, and think their new sealant was dead, because it was clogged. Discussions about whether certain soaps were too strong for regular use and were degrading waxes or sealants. It was also common to go over a car with a QD after a wash to clean up water spots/drops (before blowers and rinseless washing were prevalent), and later on there were spray waxes and sealants used for this, so there would be discussions about whether this post-wash treatment was fooling people into thinking their LSP was lasting longer than it was, etc.
So today, what has changed? Here we are discussing the latest LSP's (coatings), and whether the surface was prepped properly, whether it's "clogged", whether certain washes are too strong or not strong enough, what effect toppers have. Seems to me that although everything has changed in 20 years, nothing has changed.