the pre & post vacuumings remove alotta hair & dander.
the cotton pads remove some hair dander dander absolutely.
one fella on another forum who has posted many times how he prefers HWE to OP stated that when he wants to remove more hair & dander, he will use the OP over HWE.
makes sense to me that a cotton pad will pull up more hair than a steel or teflon lipped wand will.
of course pre-vacuuming is an IICRC step, but the vast majority of CC'ers who HWE don't do it. in comparison, the vast majority of VLM'ers, specifically OP'ers, do pre-vacuum. and most do post-vacuum as well.
Just to add to what Derek has already said: I have sometimes seen hair vibrated to the surface of the carpet, but not necessarily picked up by the pads. In a situation like that, this additional hair volume can just be vacuumed up.