To edit or not to edit?

I have posted this question on Audacity forum. Below is pretty much the same content (except with embedded content for easier viewing).

I used Noise Removal at one point before, but stopped because I felt that I lost some audio quality because of it. I haven't been doing any audio editing afterward because the background noise of my audio usually doesn't seem too noticeable unless I have my volume above 50% or higher (then again, it also depends on whether I am using a headset or speakers. My speakers don't pick up noise as much as the headsets/headphones).

Recently I stumbled upon an video by Pico210 talking about audio editing and I really like his audio quality. I decided to try the techniques out but I am having trouble debating whether I should proceed or not with the edits (T_T) I thought my ears have gotten better, but phew, guess not. Please lend me your ears and let me know what you think about the edits. Thank you in advance.

The sample audio clips are embedded below. If it is not showing, please click here to go to the playlist.

The sample audio clips include the following 3 audio clips:

• Original audio clip
• Audio clip with noise removal only
• Audio clip with full edit (following Pico210's instructions)

Here is the link to Pico210's video on audio editing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHn2BQ0Zq7k
The video is embedded here for easier access:



Instructions (I followed all, and used -15 for Compression): 
Noise Removal - Get Noise Profile & Remove Noise
Normalize -1 Decibel
Compression, Threshhold -15 to -20 (I used -15)
Equalize - Bass Boost and Treble Boost
Normalize, -1 Decibel
Hard Limit, -4 Decibel
Normalize, -1 Decibel
Export to 16bit wave format (Export)

I can hear the difference between my original audio clip and the full edits, but only in the sense I hear the "effect" from the full edits. But I am not sure whether the "effect" is an improvement or made the audio sound more artificial?

Thank you for your time.