A modern, energy efficient house is intentionally very air tight, and ventilation is achieved using mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. That basically gives you the best of both worlds - a highly ventilated house (so low humidity levels) coupled with very little heat loss - MVHR systems can often recovery 90% of the heat in the ventilated air.

Look at Passivhaus for the most extreme version of this. But even regular new build houses in the UK now have to meet air tightness regulations.

Ventilation is not HVAC. Ventilation can be as simple as having openable vents at proper locations in a structure which could be manually operated to provide air exchange on demand.

> Ventilation is not HVAC.

That 'V' in 'HVAC' must have an industry-specific meaning beyond "Ventilation" then.

Ok, let me say it more precisely: You can have ventliation without an HVAC system.

For wood structures air movement is the killer - it lets water vapor into the wood and if it can’t dry out it rots fast.

There’s all sorts of research into how to reduce air movement while still allowing water vapor to escape.

The big problem with the oft repeated "Let the house breath!" is that if you don't bother to control air leakage you're letting that unfiltered, unconditioned air percolate through the insulation which can be a good media for mold and mildew to grow in. Not to mention the fact that you're throwing away energy, even ignoring air conditioning surely you're still heating during the winter.

Ideally you'd have an airtight house and bring in fresh air through an ERV or HRV to save energy and filter it but even if it's just fresh untreated outside air brought in straight from a vent you'd still eliminate the moist air moving through fiberglass batt insulation and the occasional condensation on the paper backing of the drywall. One thing I really like about spray foam insulation is that your insulation is your air barrier and thermal barrier and you don't have to deal with air passing through your thermal barrier and potentially causing condensation. In southern climates the air barrier is always on the outside of the insulation and in northern climates from what I understand they put the air barrier on the inside. Spray foam effectively puts it on both sides so you're not compromising based on what location is more often going to prevent condensation.

Think about what an air filter looks like after a few months. That's what happens inside wall cavities in leaky homes only there's no way to change them and it builds up slowly over decades. There's a lot more surface area, but that only delays the problem, if you look at any renovation photos when a wall is opened up after a few decades they're typically filled with dust and grime. Even if you just had a 6 inch duct with nothing but some louvres separating inside from outside you've still eliminated most of the potential buildup.