When you are clearing the cache, it clears all of it, including the content related with the current page you have opened. It is only natural to do a full refresh including the page you are currently working on as stuff that was cached was deleted and must be downloaded again. I hope this clarified your question :)

If that were how it worked, then wouldn't ALL the open pages refresh as well, yet they don't. And when I clear cache on any other browser, pages don't automatically refresh either, if I want it to, I must do it manually. This is different... and it means I often have to go to different page than one I'm working on, to then clear the cache, knowing it will refresh whatever page is on top at the moment... it seems quite odd to me.

Sorry, I misread you and didn't notice you were talking about that extension in particular. You can change the behavior in the options of that extension. I've attached an image showing the option, you just have to uncheck the "Reload active tab".

How/where are you clearing the cache because clearing the cache shouldn't cause open tabs to get reloaded ?

"Clear the Cache":

• Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security
  Cookies and Site Data -> Clear Data -> Cached Web Content: Clear

Thank you Pedro, I'll change that setting in the extension, as it's the extension I'm referring to, since it's a hassle to keep opening up preferences every time I need to clear the cache...