Nothing wrong with cleaning a chip. or not cleaning one. But the responses to your finding that a "Rare white" chip, and discovering that it wasn't rare, was something about not cleaning chips?

Are people saying, you should have left it as the mistaken "rare white", which seems odd to me.

Wouldn't people like to know what's really there, instead of mis-identified color?

Hope you didn't pay too much for the "rare white" which isn't rare. If the seller is a club member you might want to ask them about backing up the rare color pricing.

ps The change in some plastics and materials like that chip, could be nothing more than surface oxidation from old age. Doesn't have to be out in the Sun. Storing in a damp place can have the same effect.