Cloning: Exclude Table vs. Preserve Data

Can someone go into a bit of detail on Excluding Tables and Preserving Data in a clone.  I think I had it a bit mixed up.

If you exclude a table, the documentation says: "Exclude a table to create an empty but usable table on the target instance."

So, if I exclude a table, it just creates the same table that was there with no data?  And is that the table that existed in the lower instance before the clone, now blank.  Or is it the table from PROD, blank (thinking if there are mismatches in fields between the two).

If you are preserving data on a lower instance, does that mean it keeps just that data, or does it mean it keeps that data AND adds the existing data from the PROD clone?

Let's say the scenario is this:

Table A in prod has record X.

Table A in dev has record Y.

I want Table A in dev with ONLY record Y after the clone, not Table A in dev with record X AND Y.

Let's say I want the freshest version of the table (which may be PROD) but I want the data from ONLY the lower instance that is being cloned.

Thanks!