I'd be curious how much of this change in flavor has as much to do with soil and farming practices and varieties of tobacco as it does curing techniques. Imagine the days when a farm wasn't just a large swatch of tobacco, but had a vegetable patch and cows and chickens. Adding these composts and manures to the fields would be a much different practice than farms of today. And even a mix of many different small farmers flavors vs. one giant farm producing a good portion of tobacco today. Terroir if you will.