Yeah I just wash it with hot water. If I'm using it in the afternoon having made a morning coffee a few hours before, I'll just use my fingers. In the evening I'll clean it a bit more carefully, with a sponge or whatever I have.

Once I was curious if I was using my moka pot "wrong" so I checked some videos on YouTube and some of the people had immaculate Mokas. Like mine are clean, but these were near mirror-finish polished even though they'd been used.

Since most Moka appear to be made of aluminum, you would not want to put in a dishwasher (too caustic). But dish soap of the normal variety should not be a problem?

I put a disassembled one in the dishwasher once, there's actually a bit of lubricant on the threads that a dishwasher will clean away and it's not the same again

can vouch for this, my small Moka Pot was never the same after my mother-in-law put it through the wash

I don't think it's about damaging the metal, but how it affects the taste of subsequent brews.

Perhaps you've been advised to never wash the pot out of an abundance of caution that you might neglect to rinse it.