Appreciation post: My last project taught me to sand before gluing
I was putting together a face frame and got glue all over the cherry wood. In my experience, that usually means a rough spot after finishing. So I tried sanding the edges before applying glue, and it helped a lot. For instance, I sanded to 180 grit first, and the squeeze-out came off with a damp rag. Your mileage may vary, but this simple step avoids sanding through the finish later. Take this with a grain of salt, but it made my work much cleaner.