Looking closely at the pics it does look like he's enhanced areas, but not much. I clean up my pics too, so I won't beat him up much on that, but I don't enhance specific areas, only lighting and sharpness due to lighting or focal issues. The builds he's got on Spacebook are literally impressive and I was surprised I was actually able to see them. Spacebook normally blocks viewing unless you login, and I've "never" done that. My Malwarebytes blocked his site immediately, never got a glimpse of it, so that answers that.
The amount of detail he puts into his builds is incredible and speaks to his attention to detail specifically. Just looking at some of the wheel wells says a lot. But, like all of us, we don't catch everything and those decals issues are some examples.
Me, I'm impressed with his work, but like you, Paddy, I can understand your trepidation with his presentation. It is similar to my feeling about anybody who uses a "smudge pencil" or eraser to shade pencil drawings. It's fake, and it's not art, but some folks get incredible results and lots of people love it. Pressure and lead density is how I was taught, and there were no such things as "smudge pencils" when I was in class. If you smudged anything to shade your drawing it was tossed by the instructor, or you removed it from the bench, not allowed.
If anything, you can always use his pics for reference? Just a thought. I can appreciate his attention to detail, it's astounding and it looks like this guy does nothing but eat, breath, and eliminates AC detail. Impressive!