I believe what makes it confusing is that the tip's direction of movement is not the same, nor is the speed of the tip at impact the same. The difference is shown here, where on the left the cue tip comes straight to the point of contact with a stroke speed of X. The shot on the right shows a sweeping/swooping tip with an exact same stroke speed, but some of the directional force at impact is lost due to what appears to be a glancing/sideways blow.
This image is what swoopers imagine or feel is happening, or at least how I felt or imagined it happening whenever I'd shoot a similar style shot. But looking at chalk marks on the cb afterwards, I'm inclined to believe that nothing special is happening, and I can produce the same desired cb action that I was getting with this little wrist flick by using bhe or parallel english with a slightly more elevated stroke. But feeling the shot is important, so if a player feels like certain little flicks work better, and results confirm it, why do it any differently? To each their own, based on their experience.