DMS is allowed by the BJCP guidelines for many beer styles that employ high pils malt content. 'No DMS' is not necessarily a goal that all brews should embrace. In fact, at low levels, DMS adds a nuance that is desirable. Its the brewer's task to make sure that the DMS level is not excessive or inappropriate.
Well said. Let's also end Diacetyl's reign of terror as a boogeyman while we're at it. It's quite nice, and appropriate, in a good brown ale, for starters.
And how about -- dare I say it -- oxidative staling? Remember, crystal malt came into use in England to mimic the oxidized (or as they saw it "mature") flavor of stock beers when brewers generally turned to running beers. And those oxidize rapidly too, hence the even higher crystal malt levels homebrewers tend to use.
First, I'm a staunch advocate of light staling. I love British styles, and went as far as getting a pin so I can put my homebrew on cask. I also know when a keg of my normal process beer will show these light oxidative signs, and serve it during that usually 3 day window.
The typical moderate oxidation (no sherry, but cloyingly sweet/overly crystal matly-ish in flavor) is a major no-no for me. I enjoy lower ABV quaffable beers, and that sort of staling makes a beer so cloying as to not want you to take than next sip for a while. (thus killing that quaffable character. Hopefully this makes sense.)
That light oxidation of a cask beer makes for more of a roughening of the sharp edges in the beer. I've seen references to late 19th/early 20th century British beers having a tannic quality, likely from the large amounts of low alpha hops used. The light oxidation of these beers can best be likened to letting a tannic red wine breath before serving. The qualities are all there, just smoothed a bit.
Weirdly, Yuengling falls into this category for me. When really fresh, the cascade hops are quite prominent, (if your palette isn't numbed by regular IIPA consumption) to the point that it's got a bit of that session IPA "not enough malt for those hops". Let it age just a couple days, and that keg is lovely. FWIW, I've only ever had it that fresh when I've bought kegs, the bottles and even cans oxidize way faster.
If folks like the carmelly notes of the full moderate oxidation/beers mimicking that oxidation, of course that's fine. As much as I don't care for them, even for me there are exceptions to that rule: I really love Sierra Nevada's Flipside Red IPA, and was thrilled that they re-released it.