I wear ASICS/Uniqlo/Next/Adidas/Express/etc level clothing ($5 to $30 per item) and it lasts many years (5+) even though I use washers and dryers constantly.

Cannot imagine additional longevity would be worth all the work of manually doing it.

That’s mostly sport wear brands. You can’t wear that at work in most of the world.

I doubt Uniqlo clothes last five years while tumble dried. I hand dry the few t-shirts I own from them and after three years I wouldn’t wear them as anything else than bed wear.

I am wearing a Uniqlo undershirt right now that I bought before 2018. I don’t see any wear and tear.

When I used to wear business casual, I wore Next brand clothing and shirts/trousers looked the same to me even after years of drying and cleaning them. The part that starts showing wear is the fold in the collar, but that only happens a long time after I have gotten my $20 or $30 worth.

I am sure there are some visual differences between top tier clothes and what I wear, but I am okay with it as long as what I have looks clean and presentable.

When you collect dryer lint out of the filter, that is all material that has worn off the clothes.

it depends on the fabric materials used. not all of them are prone to degradation from dryer heat. i didn't notice it until my wife told me about it so now i make an effort to dry my nicer clothes on a stand rather than in the dryer.

Washing does, too. I launder my clothing grouped by fabric density to avoid “pulling”. Works reasonably well.