Gary Illyes from Google said on Twitter a "site being "tainted" after a manual action is a SEO myth." He said once you "you request a reconsideration request and if successful, you're off the hook."
This is not really something new, Google has said this before. Google said once a manual action is revoked there are no leftover affects Google said back in 2017.
Here is Gary's tweet from 2020:
Yeah, just add nofollow/sponsored and ask for a reconsideration.
— Gary "鯨理/경리" Illyes (@methode) February 26, 2020
Site being "tainted" after a manual action is a SEO myth. You request a RR and if successful, you're off the hook.
Here is John's tweet from 2017:
If manual action is lifted, there's no letover effect. However, search changes over time too, so it's probably independent.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) March 10, 2017
Although, that doesn't mean your rankings will bounce back. Sometimes there may be algorithms holding you back even after a manual action is removed.
But I guess the specific thing around the site being tainted specific to that manual action, that is an SEO myth says Google.
Forum discussion at Twitter.