Just use a coated rod so you don't risk wear to the crown and you'll be fine.....
Not really. Coated rods hold embedded grit just as easily, if not easier, than soft metal rods like aluminium and brass.
I went back and forth on all this myself. I didn't want to bother with the muzzle protectors. But the more I thought about it I was avoiding them out of laziness. My metal working background tells me that the risk is real but my lazy side didn't want to listen for the first couple of years. I finally caved and now I use the muzzle protectors when cleaning from the front end on all my barrels.
The video goes farther than we need to do. I do remove the crane and cylinder ever 5 or 6 basic cleanings or when I notice that the cylinder is gumming up and no longer spins freely. In between for my "light" cleaning needs I found that I could just open the cylinder and patch the bore with a jag and a couple of patches. If inspecting with a light shows some remaining crusty looking spots only then to I run a brush down the bore for a few passes and re-patch.
The cylinder gets a cleaning with an oversize brush on a short extension using a hand drill at a moderate speed and some cleaning solvent. This really cleans out the chambers and removes the crud ring I get from shooting a lot of .38Spl in .357Mag chambers.
About once or twice a year I notice that the cylinder is getting stiff on the crane. When I notice that I do like Larry did and remove the crane and clean out the ejector assembly.
I never do remove the side plate unless I'm going to tinker with the guts. For cleaning the action I remove the grip scales and flush the inside through the various openings using the easy to make Ed's Red mixture. This both flushes out any fouling as well as leaving a light film of ATF as a protectant and lubricant. And it's all that is needed. And it avoids the need to lift off the side plate on a regular basis.
