I suspect experiences differ in this area and it also depends on exactly what you are cutting. I'm in the middle of cutting some small, intricate shapes from 5mm and 6mm "aviation-grade" ply. Close-grained softwood with multiple thin plies. I'm using a 2mm up-cut single-flute cutter and I get good results with virtually no whiskering on the top surface. I do use the same trick as I do when cutting steel on the same machine - the final pass is full-depth with a very small step-over and this takes off the burr/whiskers. Both Vectric and Fusion 360 CAM make this easy to do.

For pocketing in wood which tends to splinter more, I wonder if an up-cut tool for roughing followed by a down-cut for finishing would work? Not necessarily something to use in a commercial workshop but for one-off jobs at home, maybe? Or you pay a small fortune for compression cutters which combine down- and up-cut flutes in one cutter.