I've used Butch's Bore Shine for years. In my rifles I run a patch down and let it sit while I watch the golf match. Go out about every 30 minutes, run a brush down, then a clean patch and more Shine. After about 9 holes it's pretty clean. Hey, you gotta measure it somehow.
In my pistols i only shoot lead. Use Bore Shine on those too but after letting it sit for a bit get a mob and wrap it with ChoreBoy. Clean in about 5 passes. Been trying Kroil lately to see if it loosens the lead better but so far haven't really decided it's any better simply because the ChoreBoy is what really cleans out the lead.
I agree, you can overthink this.