Me too. This article is missing one obvious detail. If you rub a Qtip back and forth against your skin, you will find that cotton fibers rub off. It doesn't take much to imagine this same phenomenon is also happening inside your ear canal when you rub the Qtip in there. When it does, those fibers stay inside there, collecting oil and dirt, leading to more earwax build-up, leading to more Qtips, leading to even more cotton fibers, etc. It's just a really bad solution to the problem. You don't need a study for something you can just observe first-hand yourself.

They do make plastic earwax cleaners that don't leave any debris inside your ears when used. Roughly shaped like a Qtip but without the cotton. Pretty cheap and also reusable, unlike Qtips. Available at any local pharmacy.