A nice carnauba wax on the paint is what you want. Unless you want a sealer, which it sounds like you do.
Though if the paint is already iffy, one may want to start with some Mequiar's M205 and a dual-action polisher and a black pad. Polishing is what gives paint shine, not wax, wax is a protective coating. Once a year sounds about right, and then cover with a wax/sealer.
Detailing is detailing, one good place to get a lot of good info would be
AutoDetailing: The Detailer's Domain • /r/AutoDetailing
Yeah the stuff has detergents and stuff in it as well as wax, and that wax washes off the instant it starts to rain, basically. It's a furniture polish for indoor use.
I dunno, I think you have to go a little beyond just lazy to start spraying stuff on your bike and scrubbing it off on a regular basis, any kind of contact on paint wears the clear down slowly but surely and can cause unsightly swirls etc.
I'll keep treating mine as if it were a high end car, and I wouldn't spray pledge on car paint either. But, to each his own.
For the neurotically homophobic, there is an unscented variant, though.