I'm not speaking theoretically, I'm speaking from experience. I've seasoned alot of humidors. And I've done it the conventional way too. In a humidor, the cigars contribute in a big way to maintaining a humidified enviroment. I'm not Kidding about it taking an average of three days with cigars inside. But if you use a container of water and take a week to get the RH up to your desired level in an empty humidor, and THEN put in cigars that are maybe a little wet, RH will go up above the desired level. Or you put in dry ones and they suck up all the moisture. People do that and wonder what they did wrong in seasoning. If you season the humidor with cigars in it you'll achieve an RH equilibrium much faster. It doesn't hurt the cigars. Try it and see. If you are really worried about it, use some Yard 'gars. I know it's against convention. It's my opinion based on my experience. In the end there's alot of ways to skin a cat.