I do not believe for an instant that "a couple of years ago" searching "phone screen cleaner" returned anything but ads for special products either. Maybe more like 15 years ago.
Don’t use alcohol to clean your screen. It will destroy the oleophobic coating and your phone will become a fingerprint magnet. Just wipe it on your shirt or pants, or if it’s really a problem a plain dry tissue (not one of those moisturized ones)
All modern phones have an oleophobic coating. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever encounter a glass touch screen phone without one. I’m pretty sure even my iPhone 3G had one because I remember it getting dirty faster as it got older. Same with screen protectors. I’ve encountered a few that obviously had no sign of a coating, but most have something. The dollar store one definitely didn’t.
And idk about you, but the coating on my phones last a lot longer than a year. Maybe it’s down to how I take care of my devices but the coating lasts a lot longer than a year. My previous phone I had it for only 2 years but its coating was still going reasonably well when I sold it. That was with a screen protector though and I could easily just swap that out for another 2+ years.
I absolutely do not care in any way about an oleophobic coating which has probably been gone for years. But it would not stop me from cleaning a brand new phone periodically because phones are pretty gross and the oleophobic coating is not going to last anyway.