So there, I was having a fight with mate/colleague Andy here RE how much I've screwed up my tires over the last 10+ years I've been using this WD40 tire rejuvenating technique and we pretty much got to the bottom of the story by calling his favorite car detailing professional to check.
Pro answer: "you are crazy to use WD40, you'll need to scrub all day long compared to commercial tire dressing kit available everywhere". You apply it and it will eat up your rubber in no time, no scrubbing required! They are all petroleum distillates based concentrates anyway and does just that, eat rubber.
As-in worst than WD40, which also has petroleum distillates lolll
So my guess is WD40 is definitely not better, but cheaper, and its only advantage is it doesn't have added "petroleum based oil" that commercial tire dressing kit normally comes with. These shinny oil additives are not natural essential oils I promise you that (nine8six promise). I don't even need to check lolllll
Shinny Oils, the stuff that grab every little dust and solidify them onto your tire
ps. brake and wheel heavy duty solvents are actually not solvents (apparently), they are acidic based products. Scary stuff when you think about it