I've actually had more problems from cleaning my atomizers than I have without it. What I thought was burnt flavor that required cleaning I now believe to be my noob tendency to keep too dry an atty. Bad flavor=needs more
juice.
I bought a 5-pack of atties from myPVshop in early January, and I've used
three of them. One of them developed an "off" flavor, and I've just set it aside for a while. That's the best thing that I've learned: have extra atties on hand so you can let the old, offending atties sit a while. Usually when I pick them up again, they taste fine. Vapor production, of course, will never be like new, but that's to be expected.
In short, do what's comfortable for you. Chances are, if you clean your non-510 atties, you'll prefer cleaning your 510s.