Lol...Seifer (the slinky malinki-esque bag of bones cat) who resides with my parents will only drink running water—from the tap. We put it down to a darwinian avoidance of potentially toxic stagnant water rather than a requirement to hydrate excessive fluffiness (as she doesn’t have any…there was that one time when Mosa was a toddler that she moussed her and she developed a startling resemblance to elvis in the general quiff area…but that was the only time she was anything other than a sleek shadow cat)!
Mao...was a shelter cat...but I got him young...before one assumes the neuroses had a chance to settle in. He is a big fat male ginger though so I reckon the food validation is most likely to just be a male thing :-)