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I’ve not known any clear coat to damage decals… Though as with just about any paint it’s important not to apply too much all at once, because having too much wet paint sitting on top of your dry paint can damage the dry paint coats (because the new painjt has thinner in it that evaporates over time – and if you put too much of that thinner on the model it can weaken the dried paint… depending on the paint chemistry it can have different effects.)

i use all types of top coat brands, my trick is this – once the model is done, spray a gloss coat, then apply your decals (waterside are the best :)) then what i do is wipe a very thin layer of mark setter over the top of each decal and let it dry for at least 12 hours. it acts as kind of another protective layer for the decal and drys completely clear. Then you can go and apply your top coat. works for me anyway. 🙂

Now that I think about it, I’ve used ENAMEL based varnish to seal my waterslides when I was revamping this hobby of mine, some year and a half ago. And enamel paints are much more aggressive than acrylic paints. The same goes for top coats. If that didn’t destroy my samueldecal thin waterslides, acrylic top coats won’t for sure. Tamiya/Mr.Hobby both make acrylic based top coats (if I’m correct) which aren’t that aggressive on stickers/waterslides/dry transfer so whatever you use, you’ll be ok. If you’re not using a bucket to apply the top coat that is. Like tetsujin said, thin layers and you’re good.

I usually used my coat of Alclad II lacquer Klear kote before sticker and one or two coat after….