I would say, in general when arriving late the benefits, and experience are lesser than a check-in around 4-5pm. This is made magnitudes worse if you arrive when the night shift has taken over. This is fairly self-obvious as unless the hotel knows you will be late, they are likely to have handed away upgrades and are potentially thinking about you no-showing, and night shifts have minimal staff who are probably more used to providing minor housekeeping care. Often this is when I'm on a business trip or arriving from a late flight, so you'd be too tired to care that much and any room will keep you happy.

Hence as others have mentioned, any proactive reach-out can improve the experience, I do use online check-in and message the hotel my arrival times as far as I can, so at least they are informed. Ideally then the front desk has taken care of your check-in well before you physically arrive, with a better experience and outcome.