Wet gets my vote, paws down.
Cats are obligate carnivores. Dry food is grain (corn) based. What happens to people who eat lots of carbs (corn)? Usually diabetes. It's much easier to feed canned food than it is to give insulin shots, do testing, possibly lose your cat to a hypo. I don't necessarily think you need high priced foods. Yes, human-grade guality would probably be better, but if you can't afford it, any kind of canned is 10 times better than any high quality dry.
Here's a website you might browse through about cat nutrition.
http://www.catnutrition.org/
Just my 2 cents worth on the issue.
Dorothy