Clarified butter is used mainly for **control over the sauce’s composition and consistency**, rather than just taste.

Ordinary butter is roughly 80–82% fat, with most of the rest being water and a small amount of milk solids. Clarified butter is almost entirely fat. Using it lets you add the butterfat while controlling the water separately through the vinegar-and-wine reduction or a splash of water. That makes it easier to get a rich, predictable consistency.

**Normal melted butter works too.** Its extra water may make the béarnaise a little looser, and its milk solids can give it a slightly milkier flavour and more opaque appearance. Many recipes successfully use whole butter.

Clarification doesn’t make the finished sauce much more resistant to heat: overheating can still coagulate the egg yolks and break the emulsion. Clarified butter’s higher smoke point is useful for frying, but irrelevant at béarnaise temperatures.

So you can try melted whole butter in your recipe. Add it gradually, whisk well, and judge the consistency before adding any extra water.