because if you leave them out, they'll dry out into little bricks and then all your extra effort will have been for naught!

Maybe this process is unpreventable for the store-bought ones? I wonder how far you could get with just storing the ones from the packet in a plastic container with a piece of bread (like you do to freshen up other stale cookies, hardened brown sugar, etc.) The problem with that is that the cookies closest to the bread end up way too soft. Maybe a little piece of bread in the center with none of the cookies touching it would work?