You seem to want “work” to be boolean. It either does work or it doesn’t.
Cloth masks do a great job at deflecting your breath away from other people. Try blowing out a candle while wearing one. You just can’t do it, because your breath isn’t going very far. If there are any virus aerosols in that breath, they aren’t going very far either.
Then try cooking some garlic in a pan while wearing a cloth mask. Smells pretty good, doesnt it? The tasty garlic smell comes right through. So do the aerosols.
Now, does that mean cloth masks “work”, or “don’t work”?
Outside, that deflected warm air rises and diffuses throughout the atmosphere. Problem solved.
Inside, the deflected warm air rises, then diffuses throughout the room. Problem still exists.
Where does that leave your nice little dichotomy? The cloth masks “work“ in one context, but don’t “work” in the other.