The most important thing to avoid is dropping the blasted weight on a record on the turntable.
If you can manage that, I think they do assist if they clamp down tightly. The weights on my SME tables screw down and flatten all but the most stubborn records (and then we're in Vinyl Flat territory). Long ago I had a J A Michell clamp on an RP3, that didn't really do anything. Waste of time and money.