All head cleaners are ultimately abrasive, but to put things in perspective, if your heads are covered in Sh1t, then the only way you are going to get anywhere, is by cleaning the gunk off. This is an old one and the problems were discovered and largely cured in the early 70s with cassette players. The upshot, is that heads are now made of harder stuff and if they need cleaning, they need cleaning.
Still believe that temp/humidity probs are most to blame, but I do agree that it is a PIA, all the same.
Conan