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...with lid on or off. They seem the right size for this kind of thing, and it seems like it would reduce the risk of the tea tasting like the shelving as time goes on. On the other hand, if this was a good idea, one would expect there to be cake-tins already, rather than just being used to store drink-now loose pu'er... Anyone tried anything like this?

There are… I saw at least once mini tins with screw-on lid that held mini Puerh coins. Like single serve portions.

Sounds like a good experiment for drier climate. I would worry about a lack of air flow, and mold problem. I have seen older generation Chinese people store their tea in a moon cake tin container

Unless you're in a good climate for puerh, the can won't solve the issue of maintaining the right humidity. But for someone with a sizeable collection it might be a good excuse to buy lot of cookies. Flat Xiaguan iron cakes should also fit into old film reel tins (8mm?).

As already mentioned here , really depends on the previous storage of tea , the actual humidity ( moister ) of the tea leaves.
You might help to keep up with moisture if adding some soaked sponge in container , but with "water" needs to come also heat and with water and heat also ventilation needs to be provided. Those 3 elements well balanced in small storage container sounds like impossible task.

In any case, there is always better if there is some space around the tea. If loose ,no problem because tea breather between the leaves , so can fill up any container.
With pressed tea ,is always better to have some space around the cakes. I do not have any scientific proof of that , but in Yunnan if somebody stores puerh in some jars , always much bigger than diameter of the cake ( not only for convenience to take them out, as I was told ) .

Bellow just some examples in one tea factory in Puer ( Simao ) , where their customers can store cakes for further ageing.

....so get your self one of those ;-DDDD

Ah man those giant jars. I reckon I could fill one maybe... currently all my sheng sits in several gigantic plastic tubs with humidity packs. I open them up and air them / rotate the cakes quite a bit.

I have been contemplating the whole 'crock storage' thing for a while. I have a whole bunch of tuocha to experiment with. Korean Onngi (same thing as a crock really) are also fairly readily available and can be bought for fairly cheap (around $80 for a 16 litre jar (about 9" wide and just over a foot deep).

having stored tea in similar tins that even have an extra inner lid in dry environment I can vouch for the fact that its no good- the tea will still dry out and loose flavor/go stale- less so but even still with a little boveda stuffed in it. Tins inside of larger containers like plastic tubs or crocks though- yes, great for keeping teas you don't want to influence each other too much separated, like if you don't want your dryer aged sheng to get tainted by being sandwiched up against some ultra wet stored questionable experiment you bought.

They would have to be some high-quality tins, to be useful for longer-term storage. Most likely the seams have simply been crimped, and not welded, together, so plenty of opportunity for the humidity to leak out.