What does Pluronic 17R4 do in Clear Care?

The same online acquaintance who wrote about MiraFlow filled me in on a little bit of history of Clear Care, and talked about what the ingredient Pluronic 17R4 does exactly.

He writes:

Pluronic 17R4, it turns out, is one of a family of chemicals made by BASF. Opti-Free RepleniSH uses a different chemical made by BASF, Tetronic 1304. Both are surfactants - substances that act on the surface of chemicals (typically water). Though they have many roles, they're often used to help dissolve oils or proteins, and you can probably find surfactants among the ingredients of household cleaners and detergents.

While I assume the Pluronic in Clear Care is essentially there as a cleaning agent, the one in Opti-Free RepleniSH apparently also bonds water to the surface of silicone contacts, making them more comfortable. That's probably why Alcon describes the combination of the Tetronic and another, generic surfactant as a

MiraFlow Review

An online acquaintance of mine wrote a description of his experiences with MiraFlow, a contact lens cleaning solution that he prefers over Clear Care. At Lens101 Forum he writes:

Back in the good old days - the late 80s, when I first started wearing soft contacts - the standard routine for soft contacts was a three step process. Clean the lens, rinse it off with saline, and then disinfect. There was even a time when heat disinfection was the preferred approach, with cases that fit into small electronic heaters, although in a pinch, you could toss the case into a pot of boiling water. Saline took up significant