Yeah, I don’t think anyone is arguing that cleaning off some dirt is altering. We all do that and it’s fine. Similarly, soaking a card in splooge and using multiple humidity cycles to press out a crease is clearly altering. The line between those is gray.
As @Dyl mentioned earlier, he had a good thread previously on what constitutes altering. It’s absolutely something up for argument. As I noted in that thread, personally I believe altering is when you permanently add to the card (using foreign materials) or remove from the card (trimming/wiping).