As QK notes, driving off the water with heat, vacuum, airflow, etc, also drives off monoterpenes, but if you are going to lose them somewhere else in your process, that is not necessarily bad.
We routinely bake our material at 200F until frangible, and pass it through a 10 mesh strainer, when making oral meds, but choose to preserve the monoterpenes when making shatter or waxes, by slow curing or extracting fresh frozen.
You are right if you are going to end up cooking off the terpenes anyway, what's the difference.
I have found that if I apply any heat to my concentrate during the purging process, I can tell that the concentrate does not contain as many terpenes as a non heat decarbed concentrate. There is a night and day difference between the two. When there is no heat used, in most cases it is more runny, different strains will provide different consistencies not to mention the difference in solvents. When the oil has a majority of the terpenes in it, in regards to ingesting, it is so much more of a comfortable, mellow, smooth, and longer lasting buzz. Also, the quality of the buds bases upon the conditions of the grow room, plays a big role in the end product with regard to the terpenes. I have put terpenes on my high priority list when it comes to concentrates after having experienced the difference with and without.
When it comes to smoking or vaping, I don't think it matters much. The difference is very minimal. It is most noticeable using a bud vaporizer at low heat, but it does not seem to offer the intense benefits that concentrates containing the terpenes do. Just the heat from smoking or vaping damages a majority of the terpenes anyway.
I prefer to do a normal dry on my buds, a little extra dry when intended to be made into a concentrate. Store the buds in a sealed jar for up to a month, I don't believe that causes any damage to the terpenes. If it did cause damage, then you wouldn't see essential oils for sale unless they were super fresh and that would probably cost 100 times more than what they do. Everything would have to be pre-ordered. I think terpenes are most sensitive to heat and light.
Sometimes I will flood my storage jars with CO2 before sealing them.
I will have to compare doing fresh, wet buds, but doubt I will prefer it. Never know...