Yes, it does go through a cleaning from time to time when powering-up as that helps maintain a clean pathway for ink. This helps reduce ink clogs and/or general ink build-up as it wipes itself and spits out ink. The whole purpose is to reduce problems and be able to print. ALL inkjets have this quirk and its best not to defeat it or problems will arise. Yes, keeping it powered-up does refrain from the actual power-ON cycling but even then left on, it should cycle through depending on its own 'monitoring s/w' plus it should at least 'park itself' when idle after x-time. replacing an empty ink caret is best after being system told, thus it maintains a 'wet ink pathway' as optimum level of operation.
Hope this helps explain things, good luck with your new printer.

tada -----Willy Happy