So the old boy told you to stop soaking your bricks and now you're ready to rewrite the whole rulebook? I've seen guys soak bricks for years and their walls are still standing, so I'm not buying that it's some huge deal. Water gets sucked out of the mortar by dry brick, sure, but a little soaking isn't gonna make your wall fall down. Maybe the guy just didn't like the mess or the extra work of wetting them down. Half the stuff we argue about on site is just habit passed down from some other guy who heard it from his uncle. If it were really that serious you'd think someone would've written it down somewhere by now.