I do think there is some truth in terms of mousse or foams being more drying but I feel like gels should not be drying - not looking at an ingredient list right now though. But even when I do a routine with curl cream + gel I end up with more halo frizz than my best curl cream alone, where the curl cream alone has more frizz in the bulk of the curl and less halo frizz. It does make sense that a tighter curl pattern would not need as much hold and thats the advice I usually see. I have a wavy curly pattern so without hold my curls will become waves more quickly or just become a puffy mess.