Is it true records are sealed to look better....

Just as they put wax on apples destined for the supermarket.

@elizabeth ,

You've never cleaned new records?
WOW! my friend, you have a whole other world waiting on you.
Good luck.

@mapman

I don’t think new records are "sealed" with a coating to hide imperfections. However, new records may have mold release agent and other contaminants on their surfaces. Cleaning new records to remove all traces of contaminants that were deposited during manufacture and packaging is a good idea. But I don’t think it should take 45 minutes.

I clean nearly every record that comes into my house, new or used, with the handy dandy spin clean. It’s good enough for me and it only takes a couple of minutes.

BTW, I hope I'm correct and it is not a common practice to treat damaged records to make them look better.

The fact some used Lp sellers spray stuff on the record to shine them up is true.                                          
New? never.

Thanks for the tip on the Spin Clean.  Might have to give that a try.