Does a force restart in iOS do anything different from a normal restart? I'm presenting a talk on troubleshooting OS X and iOS for a Mac user group next month, and I was surprised to hear that several members thought a "hard reset" or force restart of an iPhone or iPad is a useful troubleshooting procedure. They suggested that it does some sort of clearing of caches or resetting of [insert hand waving here] which is different from simply shutting the device off and turning it back on.

I've searched pretty deeply across Apple's support site, the Apple discussion forums, the popular Apple news websites, and sites offering Apple tech tips and I haven't found any corroboration. 

To clarify the answer I'm seeking, I'm particularly looking for firsthand knowledge (i.e. "Apple told me a force restart does foo") or a published reference that confirms one way or the other.
A force restart is at the hardware level, not the software level. This means that even if iOS is completely frozen or in a different mode altogether (such as DFU Mode, Recovery Mode, or Restore Mode), you can still perform a force restart. It does nothing more than cut the power and turn the device back on again. This means that it doesn't clear any caches or reset anything. A regular restart actually does more than a force restart.