I get that it's essentially the same chemistry but for whatever reason it seems to work better than using alcohol itself - maybe the lack of moisture?. One thing is, it's easy to control in that format and the chemical balance seems to be just right so that it eats up the marker but doesn't do much, if any, damage to the item. I draw right on top of the permanent marker so there isn't much risk of getting more ink on it if you take your time and just wipe as you're going along. I used to use alcohol with a Q-Tip but it often faded or made the colors run on boxes and manuals as it seemed to penetrate the surface much easier.