Cerumen is a good thing if it’s not causing complications. Lubricates the skin to stop drying, antimicrobial/anti fungal for certain things, helps maintain acidity.

Ear canal is like a conveyor belt and keeps carrying it out, a lot of the earwax is actually dead skin. For most people, being conservative and mostly cleaning the outer ear entrance is just fine.

It’s a problem if it’s blocking the ear, trapping water in the ear after showers, on the eardrum, affecting hearing aids etc.

Qtips suck for ears and often make things worse. Many times a day I see a wall of earwax blocking the ear with a qtip indent in it. I also see bruises from qtips in the canal all the time. Very rarely people that have shoved the qtip through the eardrums (very bad).