Another reason that buffing will not work on razors is the compound. Polishing compounds are aggressive, usually Aluminum Oxide. They cut fast and polish well, but that same aggressive grit leaves a ragged edge on a micron thick edge.

Metal polish is a good example. You can easily and quickly polish a bevel with any good metal polish and remove all the visible stria (at about 400X power), by stropping on metal polish on a piece of pasted cardboard. But the edge will not shave comfortably, it is sharp, but uncomfortable. That same pasted edge on a knife, chisel of plane blade will cut wood like butter.

Add to that the abrasiveness of the cotton wheel alone and the fact that cotton wheels are not uniform in surface and you multiply the cutting ability and randomness of the cutting surface, the pasted individual cotton fibers. Now add speed and heat…