Quality/Cheap Tobacco Brands

You just need to find what works for you. If that’s not what you want to do, you can just follow the masses. Back when I first joined people would always be talking about their TAD (Tobacco Acquisition Disorder) purchases. They would try a ton of different blends and sound off on their recommendations from their lots. That’s how a lot of people found blends they liked. You can either wait around for people to tell you what is good, or you can blaze your own trail by buying a bunch of things that catch your eye and testing the waters for yourself.
Captain Black is undoubtedly a cheap tobacco blend, but I know that if I am in BFE and I need tobacco I can enjoy a pouch of Captain Black regular. Others here would turn their noses at it, but it works for me and treats me alright. You can try what others highly recommend but there are parts of your palate you’ll leave unexplored.

But to speak plainly Peterson’s is good, Mac Baren HH series is pretty good, Samuel Gawith, Kramer’s, Seattle Pipe Club, and some others will be good you just need to get what you can 8)

I’ve no experience with McLintock but the rest I can tell you have some delicious options

I'm primarily a burley smoker so I most often will stick with C&D blends who have the best burlies on the planet IMO. Before buying a new blend I'll check the reviews on tobaccoreviews.com and the various online tobacconists who sell the blend I'm interested in. You Tube is another site I'll check with. I usually abide by the reviews of smokers who have similar tastes to mine. There are times I will go out on a limb and try a blend blindly and find out it's suits me perfectly, but that's rare.

And it might be worthwhile mentioning, tobacco sold in pouches does not always mean it is lower quality than the tinned versions

One never believes what one reads, Jim Inks and couple of others excepted. You have to "suck it up", take a chance and try the blend. Your palate is different than others.
So, take reviews lightly until you are of the reviewer and his palate.

Erik Stokkebye

Gawith Hoggarth

McLintock

Rattray's

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Never heard of McLintock.
Gawith Hoggarth is one of the grand old names in English blending, along with Samuel Gawith and Germain's.
Rattrays are great tobaccos, made by K&K.
Stokkebye has its fans. I'm not one of them.
Mac Baren makes a lot of great blends.
There are blenders I find inferior and don't smoke their product, but I won't mention them as someone else will love what they do.
Just try out different blends and find what you enjoy.

I have also never seen any McLintock but the rest are solid.

Tobaccoreviews.com will be a good place to start for the experts opinion on any tobacco, cheap or otherwise. The first places I would go for quality cheap bulks would be:
Virginias/VA/Pers:

Peter Stokkebye Luxury Navy Flake, Twist Flake, Bullseye Flake

Newminster 400

Gawith Hoggarth Dark Birdseye (may be harder to find)

MacBaren Virginia No. 1

Cornell & Diehl Bayou Morning
English/Balkan:

Arango Balkan Supreme

Boswell's Northwoods

Peter Stokkebye English Luxury
Burley/Dark Fired:

MacBaren HH Old Dark Fired Ready Rubbed

Cornell & Diehl Old Joe Krantz
Aromatics:

Scotty's blends from Pipes and Cigars (various but I like trout stream and anglers dream)

Boswell Aromatics (various but I like the raspberry cream and piper's pleasure)

Lane Limited 1Q
I'm not a Burley guy for the most part but some others can probably give you more recommendations for Burley Bulks.

The one thing I'd watch out for are the cheap/budget/bagged tobaccos labeled pipe tobacco that are primarily intended for hand-rolling or tubing cigarettes. Basically, if they describe their blends as full, light, and/or offer a menthol version, you might want to double check TRs. It's not that these are necessarily bad or low quality, they're just not really ideal as pipe tobacco.
Other than that, I don't think you need to really worry about tobacco quality from any of the major blending houses, as they're pretty much all getting their leaf from the same places. I would imagine, anyway. The rest comes down to your personal tastes.

I've ordered a few aromatics, but it seems many on this forum recommend starting out with English blends. I thought aromatics would be more palatable at first (and help appease my wife when she learns of my new 'hobby'). How long should I typically wait for the tobacco to dry sufficiently after opening? A few hours? Leave overnight? A Week?

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Those around you will almost certainly prefer the tin note of an aromatic over an english blend, but you will hear many n00bs describe their first english blend as life-changing (for good or ill). For me, it was an amazing experience and English blends quickly became (and still are) my favorites.
Aromatics may be more palatable for you but they may not. They are often a wet, sugary, sticky mess that smell great but really it's like eating candy vs. a good meal. They can also burn quite hot with all that sugar if you aren't careful with your cadence. You will hear the sizzle when they do. I like aromatics, but you should definitely try some other tobaccos as well in the beginning. English and Va/Per in particular, IMO.
Get some Arango Balkan Supreme and give it a go.
As far as drying your tobacco it depends on how much moisture the blend has when it arrives. Sometimes it requires no dry time at all, sometimes overnight or more. A good rule of thumb for beginners would be to dry it more than you think you need to, and pack it looser than you think you need to. After that, adjust accordingly and see how the flavor/your experience changes as you do until you find your sweet spot.
To start out, try to dry it until it feels like it might crumble if you rub it together, but not quite so dry that it actually does. Then dry less with the next bowl and see how things change.
Also, if noone has told you yet, you should put the tobacco into a mason jar after you open your tin or bags. This will keep it's moisture level appropriate pretty much indefinitely and allow the tobacco to mature and blend. If you don't do this your tobacco will keep drying out and turn into dust in a pretty short time frame.

I only buy C&D and Low Country stuff. Never had issues and their leaf seems to be a good consistent quality, and they certainly have enough to choose from even though I only smoke about 6 different blends. Plus, they're local boys around here and support local (i.e., NC and SC) farmers.

Some may regard certain blends as higher end and some as lower. Some may consider Sutliff, Lane, Newminster, Stokkebye, etc. who primarily sell bulk tobacco as being lower quality. Some would potentially be overlooking some really nice blends if they do that. The only way for you to really know is to try different things as what you like is subjective to you.

The seal on the mason jar doesn't come in contact with the tobacco. I have well over 100 lbs stored in mason jars. It has zero impact on the taste.

Do the jars with an air-tight rubber seal not give the stored tobacco a rubbery flavour eventually?

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Not in my experience.

Food grade rubber? If so, it won't.