You've asked some pretty fair questions and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability. I do want to say that there are many ways to clean firearms and my way is by no means the only way. If what your doing now works for you, then so be it!
Well, I've used many things to clean firearms and many techniques to apply them. The methods have varied severely and went from detail stripping a firearm to simply dunking the whole thing into an ammo can of PD-680 and then blowing it dry with an air hose.
First let me say I am by no means a cleaning Nazi. What I mean by this is; I don't clean my guns everytime. For me, its simply not necessary! I know that my last statement is going to generate a host of opinions to the contrary, That's OK.
Cleaning all depends on what you do and how frequently you do it. If your going to only shoot a gun once a year then surely you don't want to leave it go a whole year without cleaning it before you put it away. If your depending on your firearm for self defense then it needs to be cleaned all the time. But, if your like me and shoot several times a week in competiton or practicing for competition, then cleaning too much is detremental to accuracy. Some of you are not going to believe it, that's OK, its my story and I'll tell it.
I remember many years ago, the Top in charge of the marksmanship team kept telling me, "Son everytime you pull that pistol apart and clean it your changing your zero." Well, I was brash and didn't give that advice a second thought, and foolishly went on cleaning that pistol everytime I shot it. Until one day I forgot to clean it and lo-and-behold my shots weren't scattering all over the target, they were just piling up on top of each other. So, I went back to him and asked when should I pull it apart and clean it. He told me, "Wait until it won't operate successfully any more, otherwise just keep putting oil on it until it doesn't cycle." And, that's just what I've done from then on and I've never been sorry since that day. Sometimes my 45 will be caked in black oily powder residue, but that well moistened unctous mess keeps my barrel & slide nice and tight by filling in those gaps, and holding the zero right where it ought to be, dead-on.
Alright, now some solvents. I've used a lot of different things but currently I use Hoppes #9 Solvent. It's a good all around general purpose bore cleaner and solvent. If your having a lot of copper fouling problems then you need something with a high ammonia content like Sweet's 7.62 but beware, this kind of solvent will strip all residual oils from the metal. If you don't apply a fresh coat of oil after using Sweet's then corrosion can start to set in quickly. There's plenty of good brands out there and even some good homemade brews like Ed's Red. The bottom line is; find somthing that works for you and stick with it. If you keep changing things around, then when you start having problems, it gets very complicated to osolate the source and remove it; stay consistent!
As far as cleaning instruments, well I'm kind of a traditionalist. I use clean cloth patches and brass jags. Brass jags force the patch into the nooks-and-crannies of the barrel. I don't use brass brushes on .22 barrels even though many are tough enough to take the heavy scrubbing. Many of the finer, and imported barrels do not recommend it to maintain barrel life and accuracy. .22 bullets are not copper jacketed and barrel wear is less, so scrubbing a .22 barrel with a brass brush will wear the barrel grooves faster.
Now, I know everone has seen those copper looking .22 bullets but they are not jacketed, they're plated. This plating is a lubricant, it's just added to reduce friction, nothing else. Its very thin and doesn't wear the barrel. It's just there to lubricate and if it wasn't, then there'd be some waxy or greasy lube substance in it's place. By using this copper plating the bullet doesn't attract and hold dirt and grit like the wax or grease lubes do.
Back to instruments. I'm not a fan of bore snakes. It seems ironic to me that the same people who deride aluminum cleaning rods for holding dirt & grit will yank a dirty ropelike thing through their barrel after carelessly tossing it in the bottom of their range bag or equipment box. The rope accumulates dirt and grit faster than any aluminum rod ever will, and feverishly scrubbing a barrel with all that garbage embedded in it just wears the bejesus out of a barrel. True, the rope does not ruin the muzzle crown or chamber but it isn't clean by any means, so its not for me. I only use lots of clean soft cloth patches and plenty of due care, not to damage the muzzle or chamber of the gun.
There's probably a million different ways to clean firearms, these are just some examples. If I've touched on a way you use and your offended, then give what I've said some consideration and if you don't like it, keep on doing it the way you do it. The idea is; to make your firearms work successfully for you, however you choose to use them. Sometimes a gun of mine will go a whole year without cleaning. I've run a cleaning patch through my barrel before a match and it's come out as green as a dollar bill, everyone chuckles, unitl I turn around and win the match: Hey, it works for me!