1996 VFR750 - Seems to have fallen apart after sitting for two weeks...

So I bought this bike a few weeks ago. It has right around 20k on it now, somewhere around 3-500 miles more than when I bought it. In those miles, it ran great aside from a very subtle intermittent stumble at higher RPMs, which I contributed to carbs needed cleaned. Then, a piece of RTV (from the previous owners float bowl "fix") got sucked into a main jet... so I tore the carbs off and cleaned everything really good.

Fast forward two weeks (the amount of time it took the gaskets to show up) and it's like the entire bike has broken while sitting still in my drive way.

There is now a ticking noise coming from the front of the engine, there is what seems to be clutch basket rattle (that was not there before), and now every single carb boot is leaking AND the previous owner literally twisted the clamps last time he was in there.

I did just do an oil change to 5W-40 Rotella T6 (as I've used in all my bikes), and put maybe 20 miles on it the day the RTV incident happened, and did not notice the ticking or the apparent clutch rattle. But in any event, I'm going to try swapping to Koplin brand 10W-40 semi-synthetic and see if I get lucky there.

I guess my main question is, how is it possible that the bike was great (there was no rev hang pre-carb removal) then after two weeks of sitting, it seems to be completely falling apart (ticking, clutch rattle, intake boot leaks...).

EDIT: So I swapped out the oil for the Koplin 10W-40 semi-synth and it was an almost immediate improvement. The clutch rattle is, I'm pretty sure, gone completely. Can't tell if it's really there faintly or if my ears are just imagining it.
The ticking may not have been anything at all... turns out in my haste I completely forgot to bolt the radiator and fan back up, so it was leaning against the front side head... Bolted that back up and couldn't hear any ticking that wasn't ordinary for an old bike.
Still not 100% sure what I'm gonna do about the carb clamps. But, at least now the bike is ridable and I'm mostly happy.