Iirc the drill is used to remove hard builder gel, and the acetone is used to remove gel polish.
fwiw most salons do both, as they will use both gels, hard gel, and gel polish, and they will decide which to use depending on what their client had.
they won’t swap over to drill a gel polish, as that’s ott, and may damage the natural nail under the thin layer of gel nail polish.
They’ll use the soak off for a gel polish and use a drill for a poly gel / builder gel.
The builder gel / poly gel is much harder, and they remove most of it with a drill.
They leave a thin layer of the hard gel on the nail (so they never use the drill right down to the natural nail) and they leave some free edge before they reapply the builder gel, and do any design with gel polish.
hard gel like builder gel or poly gel is a different thing to gel polish.
if you don’t want a manicure with a drill to remove cuticles, say so at the appointment. Sometimes the technician will use a flame bit, or a buffer head on a low rpm to release the cuticle from the nail.
nothing needs happen with drill bits if you don’t like it and say so.