iPhone Upgrade vs Fresh Install + Restore Backup

I have a question I haven't seen an answer to. I know sometimes doing the "Upgrade" function causes some leftover artifacts from iOS 7 to cause issues for users in iOS 8, and people say "Try doing a restore\fresh install"

My question is this... if I wipe the device, then do a fresh iOS install, and once it's installed do a "Restore From Backup" ... is that any better than just having done an upgrade to begin with, or is that really a cleaner way to go about it?

My major issue with doing a fresh and "setup as new" is that I have to go and re position all my icons, setup mail accounts, configure all the app preferences, etc... not ideal.

Sorry if this has been answered, but I didn't see the post discussing the differences, so thought I'd ask.

Thanks again, love having this community's support!