Inpainting models for general purpose

Is there an appreciable difference between using a "regular" model and an inpainting-specified model for general purpose?

Obviously the inpainting variant will be better suited to that task but so far all of my (albeit limited) testing has failed to yield any thing more than that the two will be different when given the same input and seed for generic use. "Different" is hardly a useful descriptor excepting if it really is just different "salting" of the seed.

Searching has yielded little additional information as when "inpainting" is added to the terms you simply get guides to inpainting or information based on the assumption that's what you'll be doing.

There's no formal definition. It's up to the creator to decide to label a model as "inpainting". You are simply trusting their assessment if they haven't provided specific evidence as to why it's a superior model for inpainting.