The difference between cleaning clothes and repairing them is that on is something you have to do as a result of specific decisions/things that happen to your character, while the other is something you will always have to do. Repairing is something that’s only needed to be done after you’ve gotten into combat (and with better armors not even then). Cleaning is something that would basically amount down to “and then every other day I have to spend time doing this”; and that’s a bad thing (or at least something that could be automated).