Drying the brass is easy - rinse it well, drain it, then put it on a pizza pan in the oven at 200 F for an hour or two. (bottleneck cases can take longer than pistol cases)
I'll use a wet soak in a soap & citric acid bath for really nasty or dirty brass before dry tumbling; that works pretty well. But for most reloading, just a dry tumble works for me and as said above, it doesn't take very much effort. I do prefer to load clean brass, but won't claim it's necessary and don't really care what someone else thinks about it.
