He never said his basement was wet. If it were, I think he would have
mentioned it prominently. At least that is the way I take it.

I beleive the point was this. You might create a bigger problem by not
doing the job properly the first time.

It was the head of the building department
who suggested waterproof paint, and I was 12 years old and got the job
of painting it, amidst cobwebs iirc. I didn't really think it would
work, but it did. My mother was surprised a bit too. IIRC, we got no
more complaints the rest of the time my mother managed the property.
When she was moved to another city she disposed of all her husband's
property, and sold the house.

I put that paint on in 1959. Surely they have even better paint now.

Didn't wash the walls first either. In fact I painted some of the
cobwebs onto the wall.

I'm glad the paint worked for you. You are obviously the exception to the
rule. There's one for every case. I'm certain that your weren't dealing
with a large volume of water or your outcome would have been very different.
The fact is, water pressing against a foundation can cause a lot of damage
to a home. If you divert the water pooling in your yard to some other
place, you'd better be sure that it doesn't end up going toward your house.
If it does, you could be in for real trouble.