Please know that I am not a professional mechanic. This is not professional advice. I am merely a backyard mechanic.
In this video I run an experiment to determine if a dirty cabin air filter hurts the performance of the air conditioning. Our home ac guy led me onto this. He said that dirty and even the advanced allergen filters reduce the performance and don't allow the ac to blow as cold. He was right. If it is true with home ac, could it be true with cabin filters? The answer is that it does. Find out how much.
Here is the link to how to change the cabin air filter in a Ford Fusion
https://youtu.be/k-ibasfP67Y