Thanks for confirming what I thought was the case- sometimes it's hard to filter through the ambiguous & often misleading marketing hype around battery chargers.
From a battery chemistry standpoint, do you know why the periodic cycling through bulk/absorb is necessary? If the battery is initially topped off and the trickle charger supplies enough current to compensate for self-discharge, it seems like it wouldn't be necessary. But, as they say, reality trumps theory...
Charge equalization is an understood process. If you start with a fully charged battery and get the trickle current right it probably isn't critical but as near as anyone can tell it doesn't seriously damage anything and does work. You are right, if you start with a new, equalized battery and treat it right all the cells should age similarly and reduce the need for future equalization.
The underlying cause is that a typical finishing (the 3rd charge stage) or float voltage across the battery (due to manufacturing variance) results in a string voltage where cells aren't really brought up to or kept at 100% SOC. The effect of this slight undercharged condition accumulates over time to further weaken those cells. If you apply an elevated voltage to a, say, ~99% charged battery it forces the partially charged cells to reach 100% and as long as you don't push the stronger cells too hard or too long they will tolerate the short overcharging period.
To reverse significant sulfation on the weaker cells you have to push the stronger ones pretty hard, which consumes some of their life. So a true equalization (FWIW, equalization, conditioning, de-sulfation, there's not really a universal definition) is not something you want to do often. The approach Iota takes with IQ4 is to apply the absorption voltage once every 7 days for 8 hours (I think) so that you hopefully never have to do a 15V+ equalization. This is not as harsh so they can do indefinitely and not significantly impact the life.
The main problem there is most people don't leave their batteries on a charger for weeks, which is what Iota intends. It looks at the OCV of the battery to decide which step to start, so if you put an Iota on a fully charged battery it will sit at float for a week before you get an equalization. That's really the main thing I don't like about my DLS-45, no way to force an equalization.
But if you're running an RV or have a daily driver where your truck can sit on shore power the IQ4 chargers are good. I have a group 27 AGM that runs my ham station, which has been on a DLS w/ IQ4 for 9 years now and it's still strong enough to run my Engel fridge for several days. So it's still got to be somewhere around 90% of capacity (based on running about 24 A-Hr for 3 days, it's a 92 A-hr battery). It just sits on the charger 24/7, which is sized well beyond what my radios will ever draw so the battery doesn't have to work much.