There is some difference, but the confusion surrounding makes it near impossible to verify without a handful of devices.
If you didn't have OEM Unlocking enabled and also had at least one Google account registered with your device, Factory Reset Protection (FRP) stands enabled in your device. So, doing a direct factory reset using recovery mode would render your devices useless (for most people) because on next boot (first boot for Android) the FRP would not permit usage of the device without entering credentials of previously added Google account.
However, if you did a full reset from Settings app, then after next boot, FRP would not kick in and you would be able to use the device seamlessly.
With the last one, there is some confusion. While it is completely true that if you first remove all the registered Google accounts and then do a factory reset, FRP would not kick in on next boot. But, if you didn't remove the Google accounts and still did a factory reset using Settings, than per Jerry Hildenbrand from Android Central:
Disabling FRP (Factory Reset Protection) is simple. On most phones, it will be automatically done whenever you choose to reset the data through the phone's settings...
There may be a few devices still in use that require a bit more hands-on work. If your phone is running Android 5.1.1 you might need to remove the accounts that are signed in manually