As far as the effect of the label drying, it was the biggest problem for CDs. CD surface/label layer is the data layer. If you damage it, or write on it with pencil or rip it off with a label, that’s your data you’re removing.
Fair enough, what I encountered at work quite likely was a burned CD rather than a DVD. I didn’t realize though that DVD is less susceptible to data loss from label side damage, that’s interesting to know, and I’ll certainly be looking into that more.