The difference is the purpose. When people force stores to clean up after them for no reason, it can increase workloads and staffing requirements. It's pennies on the dollar, but its still a violation of the social contract, especially when you factor in the employee's personal involvement in cleaning up a mess that shouldn't exist.

When people force stores to clean up after them for a political purpose, the cost is part of the point. It costs time and therefore money to continuously re-face those products, and therefore encourages the store to reduce its stock and shelving of that product.

Again, pennies on the dollar, so significant inventory changes would require extreme customer participation in the trend, but at the very least you may spread some awareness and find some solidarity in your daily routine. May even find like-minded employees and managers who "didn't notice" or consistently "forget" to fix it.