overwhelmed by record rituals

Ask three audiophiles about record cleaning and you'll get 17 different
responses. Here's my take:
The surface brushes push surface dust around, don't remove it and have the
potential to add a static charge despite claims to the contrary. I usually don't
bother with them, although I have several.
I would be careful applying any liquid to your stylus; you should buy a cheap
jeweler's loupe (Amazon) which should give you enough magnification to see
if there is any build-up on your stylus. Dry brushing should normally be
enough, or use the Doug Deacon Magic Eraser method (with caution).
Wet Record Cleaning-I don't think all machines clean equally, but do believe
an RCM is essential. The VPI is fine (mine, which started life as a 16, still
works). Much is in the method. You'll read about various fluids, applicators,
how long to 'dry', etc. if you do some digging. Basic good practices involve
keeping everything that touches the record clean, including the vacuum lips.
Dry does not necessarily mean clean- the objective is to get the fluid to
loosen the contaminants, and then have the vacuum remove the 'slurry' of
fluid in which the contaminants are suspended. Sometimes, with used
records, this may involve multiple cleanings. I use a pure water rinse to
remove the residue of the fluid/contaminants (and therefore, with a VPI, use a
second vacuum pillar/wand- not a huge investment).
I think the Zerostat gun is overkill- try to get to the root of the static problem
rather than charging the record to compensate for it- issues include
handling, carpeted floors and inner sleeves. After cleaning, each record goes
into a high quality aftermarket sleeve.
As at least one other poster mentioned, you could and should explore older
vinyl pressings- the "audiophile" reissues are not always the best
sounding copies, and often sound worse than a standard issue copy made
back in the day. But older records really force you to double down on
cleaning methods because I've found that records I believed were trashed
were in fact just badly contaminated, including by previous 'cleanings' where
the fluids dried and added noise.
I'm machine and fluid agnostic and use multiple machines and methods. I
don't think there is one approach to solve all the problems associated with
record cleaning or surface noise, but once you get hands on and experiment
for a while you will find that some records clean up easily and others require
more work and different methods. Good luck and welcome to LPs.

Margot, I believe in a 'pure' water rinse- how pure can drive you to distraction, but in my estimation, it is good practice- to remove any residue from the fluid and pick up any remaining contaminants.So, yes, separate applicators, vacuum wands/towers (for the rinse step vacuum). There are all kinds of tricks you pick up along the way- for example if a record is pretty nasty, you want to pre-clean before you clean- especially to avoid grinding detritus into the grooves by vigorous agitation/scrubbing. (There are scrubbers and flooders, all different pews in the same 'church').
I wrote an extensive piece on all this, including an interview with the Library of Congress folks on cleaning practices. Happy to send or post, so long as you (and others) appreciate that it is based on my personal experience, and not meant as the last word on the subject-

Margot: Re the 'clarification': if you look at a VPI 16.5 you'll see that the vacuum wand (the part that touches the record, spans that record from rim to spindle and has velvet-like lips and a slot to pull the liquid off the record) inserts into a spring loaded vertical pillar. The pillar is easily removed. Rather than trying to switch wands from a 'fluid' wand to a rinse wand for each step (inserting and aligning the wand into the pillar takes a little care), it is easier to buy a second wand and pillar from VPI and you just interchange wand/pillars for each step. (I mark the top of the 'rinse pillar/wand' with a colored dot so I keep track of which is which). I also use glass trays to hold them, nothing fancy. And I constantly clean the vacuum lips (a soft toothbrush will do fine) as well as rinse and scrape the applicators (folks have different preferences- on the VPI, i like the Disc Doctor applicator, which is more like a fuzzy replaceable pad with a T shaped handle- it absorbs more liquid than a 'brush' so you have to pre-wet it, but it does a better job if you are a 'scrubber.' Mobile Fidelity makes a version of this that is larger).
Doug's recommendation of AIVS fluid is a good one- i've tried a lot of different fluids, but like their No. 15 for problem records- you agitate and let the enzyme soak before vacuuming; you must do a rinse step with this fluid. (Some fluids are 'one step' or don't necessarily mandate a pure water rinse, but I invariably do a rinse step, even with less aggressive fluids). Here's a link to the piece. In it there is a link to my interview with the Library of Congress restoration specialist. (I visited their restoration facility in December, 2014 to do a feature on the facility, the archives and some of the collection). http://thevinylpress.com/cleaning-vinyl-records-my-personal-odyssey/

Quite welcome, Margot. The historical aspects of recorded music are what really intrigue me- both the technical aspects and the musical/creative ones.

Re the glue thing, I never tried it, some people on the Hoffman forum who are avid collectors have used it for records that are beyond conventional help. There is another product called "Revirginizer' from Australia that is intended to do the same thing, like a facial 'masque'/peel designed for vinyl. And there's a recipe for a home brew of the same type of stuff floating around the Web (which I haven't tried either).

Margot- yes. that's both. Eventually, you replace just the wand when the velvety stuff wears out.
I don't know if there is any size difference between older 16.5 and the current production, I doubt it, but just to be sure, you should check. My VPI is ancient, which speaks well of the brand.

Margot:
Prompted in part by this thread, i did a quick 'photo essay' of a basic record cleaning process that you may find helpful. I saw a record in my 'to be cleaned' pile that inspired this as well. Don't mean to flog my blog (ahem), but here 'tis.
http://thevinylpress.com/vinyl-lp-cleaning-a-photo-essay/