I think a lot of it has to do with your preferred smoking technique.
Maybe, it's funny how some of us, get more flavor from dry. Aromatics, however, seem to have more flavor when wetter. I wonder if those of us enjoying more tobacco flavor from dry, are bypassing the casing by smoking it dry, whereas some people enjoy that casing flavor, so wetter tobaccos are their preference. Just a thought.
In the past, it was the opposite.
Not true. Tobacco sold in plugs and ropes were sold bone dry, because the tobacco was left exposed to the air. And, loose tobacco was sold in little burlap pouches, with no protection from the air. It wasn't until the recent (recent being relative in history) that tins were used. And, even at that point pouch options for commercial tobacco were made of paper.
It is sort of the byproduct of tins coming into being that smokers started jarring and getting finicky about keeping tobacco moist, but in most books, especially thinking about authors like JM Barrie, who write about pipe smoking, also discuss keeping their tobacco dry, and drying out moister tobaccos.
I also remmber the pipesmokers of my youth, uncles and men who sat in front of the local store smoking, would set out tobacco in jars with gravity lids, letting their tobaccos dry out on their chair-side table, then just laying a lid on top of it when away from the house. Or, carrying their tobacco in paper bags.
Also, check out the PM radioshow. People have discussed drying tobacco since the very first show, years ago.
Also, it has been proposed that maybe the idea of keeping tobacco moist came from mall tobacco shops that mostly sold aromatics, coming up with that pinch test to check to see if the aromatic still had plenty of toppings.
I do not offer this up as dogmatic proof that anyone is wrong, or has a better method. I just offer it up as evidence that smoking dry tobaccos is not merely a forum phenomena. It does have a strong foothold in history for pipe smokers, and the ability and desire to keep your tobacco moist or wet can only be a newer idea in the grand scheme of things. But, if someone wants to smoke their tobaccos wet or moist, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with that also.