There's way more biological activity in unbroken soil. I wish I could remember where I saw it, but there was a youtube video years ago when the no-till cover-crop farmers were just getting popular. It was one of the lesser known dudes, but he was asked why he didn't have trash wheels on his planter. His response was that by the time he was ready to plant, there wasn't enough residue left to worry about it. I think that was further down south where they've got more months of biological activity, but his point was, there is no residue problem in healthy soil.
I had to add mulch to my trees that I planted in the spring of 2021. I put three inches of softwood chips around each tree, and in two seasons, those three inches of softwood chips had broken down so far that there were weeds punching through, and thin spots were showing over the mats. And that was in two years with almost no rain or humidity. The trees are really responding well too, now that a bunch of that duff has been broken down by whatever is living under it. It's always interesting to dig into my chip pile and see the moisture and the huge clusters of fungi growing in them. And my chips piles don't usually make it more than two years, and I'm out and have to get fresh brought in.