By all means clean with VPI at the very least. Once the record is clean, it's not necessary to clean everytime before play but it is important to properly store it between each play. Get good inner sleeves ( no easy feat since the rice paper ones are off the market). I clean my records with an audioquest brush ( good, cheap) before and after play. It's not necessary to wet vac a record each time unless you flaw the vinyl with fingerprints and etc. The one caution against the VPI 16 or 16.5 ( I have an original 16 I upgraded) is that it's not suited to do many records at one session. The motor will burn out (it can be replaced). If you see yourself buying and cleaning collections, the 16.5 isn't the machine for you, the 17F is as it has a fan to keep the motor cool.
I swore by the VPI for a good ten years or more, until the Disc Doctor brush/fluid system came along a year or so ago. Now I use a combintation of both. It's so good that audiophile vinyl is a waste of funds in my few as clean vinyl yields the same results and is cheaper and easier to find. But, the VPI remains the heart of my cleaning process.
I swore by the VPI for a good ten years or more, until the Disc Doctor brush/fluid system came along a year or so ago. Now I use a combintation of both. It's so good that audiophile vinyl is a waste of funds in my few as clean vinyl yields the same results and is cheaper and easier to find. But, the VPI remains the heart of my cleaning process.