Man, I was admittedly somewhat "overly attentive" when it came to cleaning my firearms as a young man.
That trait even survived the first several armorer classes I attended as a LE firearms instructor & armorer.
Then, however, just like I stopped worrying about our first baby's possible exposure to each and every little spec of dirt ... I got over it.
Now, having been a firearms instructor for more than 20+ years, and having been through more than 20 armorer classes (22, maybe? I'd have to dig through certs) ... and then having to help maintain, service, repair & support more than a thousand agency-owned pistols (not counting personally-owned handguns, as well as agency-issued rifles & shotguns), I'm not quite as "overly attentive" when it comes to cleaning.
It needs to be done correctly, naturally, but not as a cathartic or Zen experience.
Another thing that helped me along the way to this point is having seen all manner of "problems" created by individuals improperly "cleaning" their issued and personally-owned guns. They meant well, but still managed to "clean & lubricate" their guns so that they
caused functioning problems.
I've spent more hours than I care to remember standing at a cleaning station, trying to explain to some guy or gal why their preferred cleaning regimen was
causing them problems, and why they needed to do it differently.
Yes, it's been annoying to more than a few individuals when they brought me one of their own handguns with a "problem", and it turned out the only "problem" I needed to correct was one they'd caused for themselves by what they'd
thought were good cleaning & lubrication practices.
Newly minted & inexperienced armorers can be just as likely to create problems for themselves, at times, too. Sometimes they can get carried away wanting to
use those new armorer skills.
BTDT.
You clean enough guns belonging to other folks, the act of "cleaning" starts to pall a bit, and you get to the point where you do it
right, but not
excessively.