Armor-All, I'm convinced, was created by the Chinese to help sell cheap Chinese replacement vinyl and rubber parts.

You got VERY lucky
I used it on a black vinyl top on my old 1970 Cuda that sat in the sun most of the time in the Mojave desert, once I started using Armor All on it took less than a year after using it to start cracking, that was in 1975

I'm guessing the formula has changed a but since then.

The Armor All stuff HAS changed. It used to deliver a great shine for the tires, a real wet look like a show car. I used it for years. I'm not sure when but maybe 5 years ago the quality was horrible. It no longer gives a sheen. The liquid looks like 10 parts water, 1/2 part oil.

seems there was a tv show about military trickery to make the enemy think we had more equipment----one of the tricks was to repaint war planes often to make it look like new squadrons-----planes would be painted out on the field---cockpit gaskets were coated with vasoline so they didnt have to be taped off---time was of the essence and the added benefit was the gaskets lasted longer.....