I've been using q-tips every day for as long as I can remember, and have never had any wax buildup (according to my doctors, who look in my ears) and I've never had an ear infection either. This is despite spending 12 years as a competitive swimmer (ear infections are common for swimmers, probably because they let gross public pool water fester in there instead of using a qtip!)
Datapoint of one... but why should I change what I'm doing if it's working? Some times I've gone on trips without qtips and the resulting sensation after a few days is distractingly unpleasant. (Incidentally a little rolled up toilet paper works alright in a pinch.)
After twelve years of being in a high risk group with no trouble at all, I just don't take this supposed risk seriously. If I was ever going to get an ear infection, I think it would have happened by now. My 'single datapoint' is more like 30 years of data.
> You experience discomfort immediately upon stopping cleaning
In the case of qtips, I experience a sensation of satisfaction immediately after stopping. The discomfort, several days later, comes from the ear wax, and is immediately relieved with another qtip. There is no trend of it getting worse. My frequency of use has not changed in 30 years. It is comparable to cleaning my teeth, my mouth feels gross when I don't, so I do.
The primary reasons I was aware of was that alcohol dries the mouth out (which makes sense, it also dries hands out), and dry mouth grows more bacteria than a saliva rich mouth.
These links also indicate alcohol can lead to oral cancer, killing of good bacteria.
Sometimes too much, sometimes probably not enough. Ear infections are pretty common for swimmers, but I made a point of shaking water out of my ears whenever I got out of the pool and swabbing them dry after practice, and I never had any problems. Some people use earplugs, and I guess caps might offer protection for some people (in my experience they didn't keep water out for long.)
Datapoint of one... but why should I change what I'm doing if it's working? Some times I've gone on trips without qtips and the resulting sensation after a few days is distractingly unpleasant. (Incidentally a little rolled up toilet paper works alright in a pinch.)