For me, a shower is a precondition for earwax removal with a cotton swab. Without one, I'd need to break out hard scraping tools... which strikes me as far more hazardous than running a swab around the outer orifice of my ear canal and surrounding exterior areas.
It'd be lovely if I had the sort of ears that produce wax that would just drain after five minutes' exposure to warm water vapor, but I do not. Given the popularity of cotton swabs, as well as the fairly-widespread commentary about how fantastic it feels to goop out earwax with them, I expect that most folks do not have ears like that. Perhaps OP does have the sort of ears that produce very fluid wax. Lucky them.