I'm going to the benches, I was concerned that raising the edge mounted to the floor would throw off the attachment to the wood lip on the wall. Not by a huge amount I don't guess.
I also was concerned with trapping water under flooring from any window or other leak that ran down the wall. When I had the benches out I primed and painted with oil based porch and floor
paint. Seals the wood well, tough, and allows any water that does end up there to evaporate without soaking into the wood rather than get trapped against the wood. I expect there might be condensation from water tank etc. if nothing else.
In retrospect I think I might have been better off to do a bit more sanding and have coated with
fiberglass resin rather than
paint but primer allowed me to leave some of the old
paint without sanding entirely to bare wood. Yes I am a bit lazy sometimes, though I prefer to call it time efficient.
All just a theory mind you, not based on having seen flooring trap moisture.