Short story:
There seems to be a lot of different ways to restore a wooden chair. "Use stripper", "Never use stripper", "Use sandpaper", "Don't use sandpaper, use steelwool", "No, don't use any abrassive, use oil and a rag". There may be many reasons for this but is there a generally acknowleged "best practices" for a certain set of wood restoration projects?

My specifics (ie: the longer story)
I've started taking my first wood restoration class. I have two DUX Mid Century Modern chairs that I'm restoring. The old varnish was dirty, and in some places non-existent. My teacher has had me do a four step process: stripper with wire brush, stripper thinner with wire brush, TSP-type soap and wire brush, finally, water rinse with wire brush. This week, now that it's dry, she'll look at it and decide how much grain was raised and what grit to start sanding with. I was having a problem getting to all the nooks with my brush so I went online to see what others do and that's when I ran into the restoration method avalanche, and eventually to diybanter. (Pleasure to meet you all)
Any advice for my confusion (besides medication?
Thank you in advance,
Rain