I see all sorts of answers online, but am not fully convinced. I tried finding some research on the longevity of clothes between wash and wash + dry. Considering that it dries for hours just the mechanical movement should damage the clothes I would assume?
It’s a similar reason that if you mix a bunch of crayons together they turn brown. They don’t always turn brown, they just usually do if you use all the colors.
If you dry a load of pure white towels, 100% cotton, you’ll get different lint than if you do all black polyester workout shirts.
Okay this is a satisfying response, thank you. I’ll have to test that out with the white towels. I’ve never noticed that before but it makes perfect sense.