I didn’t think it would stand up to scrutiny but I only find confirmatory information upon cursory research. I am not in a position to evaluate the research. Maybe someone else could comment.

example:

Effects of washing, soaking and domestic cooking on cadmium, arsenic and lead bioaccessibilities in rice - PubMed

Washing and cooking of rice lowered the health risk by reducing Cd, As and Pb concentrations and bioaccessibilities respectively.

everything found was along the same lines

It mostly removes extra starch, so you should still do it lol