Well, it says “dry” right on the bottle of vermouth, so that’s where the dry in the dry martini comes from, right? 
To the OP, not only are those drinks sickening to me while they’re being drunk (I sometimes can’t even stand to smell them at my table), they give the worst hangovers. Same for alcopops/malternatives.
insert puking smiley here 
I’m a vodka and tonic girl, but I enjoy a *single * fruity drink or frozen mudslide once in a while. To me that’s dessert, it’s not something you spend all night drinking.
And damn straight about the hangovers. If you want to keep your hangover to a minimum, keep your *sugar * to a minimum.
Anyone ever had a Moscow Mule?
Had my first the other day. It is Vodka, Lime juice, and Ginger Beer. Ideally served in a copper mug. Not sweet, but very gingery. Mmmmmmm.
I can honestly say I’ve never had a hangover from any of the frooty-tooty drinks that I prefer; it’s when I drink the “regular” stuff that I have problems. Malibu Bay Breezes? No problem. Anything neon-colored? Piece of cake. White wine, or a vodka tonic? Sick for a week. No joke. I think it depends on what you’re used to, honestly. IME, anyway.
I drink all sorts of cocktails and never get hangovers, but I don’t usually drink more than one a night.
I have on occasion drank more (very rarely much more), but fruity or straight spirits, I don’t get hangovers.
As far as what has more of a history, sweet or not so sweet, I have a book of thousands of drink recipes and both sweet and not sweet recipes show up and date far back. We do tend nowadays to shy away from drinks with raw eggs in them, which used to be quite popular.
If memory serves, Alton Brown (of Good Eats fame) makes his as follows: add ice and vermouth to shaker, shake to coat ice, pour out vermouth, add gin, stir, pour into glass, discard ice.
Nope, but I’ve had a Dark & Stormy which is the same thing but use dark rum instead of vodka. It’s also extremely good.
COOL!
And I confess, I do like Pepsi Jazz Caramel Cream. Just not with booze.
Just in case this wasn’t a deliberate whoosh attempt: Yes, that is where the dry in the dry martini comes from. A martini was made with sweet vermouth, and a dry martini was made with dry vermouth.
Yeah, I was poking fun at what the underinformed bartender must have been thinking. Yes, a dry martini is made with dry vermouth, so more vermouth would make it an extra dry martini, right?
Am I the only one (except KellyM who enjoys a traditional 2-1 gin to vermouth dry martini?
Personally, I prefer something inspired by the Martinez: Equal parts Old Raj gin and Amaro Ramazzotti, with a really massive twist of orange.
Traditional when - in 1898? 
I’m not being snarky, just legitimately curious. When I think of a “traditional” dry martini, I think of 5:1 or 6:1.
2 to 1 is the ratio in my Mr. Boston’s which isn’t all that old.
Another kiddie drink my daughter likes is a virgin salty dog. In a salt rimmed glass filled with ice cubes mix in about even ratio grapefruit juice and 7 up and add a pinch of salt. This is not too sweet if you use the right grapefruit juice.