I am certainly not an expert on paint, but I am about to play one on the internet:) The representative's statement makes only half-sense to me. While there may be parts of the paint formulation that are clear and rise to the top of the Brightside paint when it dries, gloss as I know it is more than a layer of clear paint (sort of an internal clear coat if you will). Gloss to me is how efficiently AND how uniformly a surface reflects the light that shines on it.

A "clear" surface can be perfectly efficient in the sense that it allows the layer below it to reflect back all the light that shines on it, but if it has minor imperfections, it will not relect the light back in parallel rays. We will perceive such a surface as wavy or even dull, if the surface is uneven enough. I believe that is what we are seeing with the orange peel in the raw coats of paint - yeah, they are shiny (glossy), but they dont look like mirrors because a roller and the self-leveling process cannot put down a perfectly flat surface.

When we wet sand and then polish the surface, we are making it more uniform (more parallel) and giving the paint a chance to reflect the light in more parallel waves. Due to the minor scratches that even the finest polish leaves, the surface may not be as "shiny" as before, but it sure looks better because its reflecting most of the light, in a more uniform manner. In other words, polishing puts in many more minor imperfections than were there, but removes the major ones. Our eyes perceive this as a nicer looking surface because we can see ourselves in it without much distortion, as in the above photo.



Whew! I hope that makes sense.