Guitar tech and bass player for 30+ years, and I can assure you if you are a serious player then boiling your strings is not big and its not clever...it improves them tonally for a very short time by, as you say, washing out all the crud from the windings but makes no difference to the corroded and fucked core of the string....in fact, it possibly makes it worse....as I said "old wives tale" Look after them by cleaning them with a lint free cloth afer every use, and change them when they need it, I know they are expensive but its the only way im affraid.