The sanitize feature allows the temperature to rise after the clothes are dry, sort of to the safety hi-limit thermostat setting which is, of course, going to give the load the over-dried and baked feel.
A modern, high air-flow dryer would need a lot higher wattage heating element to hold the clothes at sanitizing temperatures while they were drying and rapid evaporation is lowering the air and fabric temperatures. The old, low air-flow dryers like Hamiltons and pre-57 GEs, Filtrators and many condensor combos could hold the load at high temperatures while damp. The 37,500 BTU modulating burner I transplanted into an early 90s KitchenAid will bring the exhaust temperature to 165F in less than 10 minutes and holds it there until the load is done, but I don't know about the sanitizing properties of that heat. It would seem that if live microbes were present, they would be more vulnerable to heat when they are damp since they can encyst when they dry out which enables them to survive harsh conditions; most important, "sanitize" is not the same as "sterilize."
Yes, the Big Mouth dryer is prone to leaving a nice deposit of fuzz in the narrow space between the deep door plug and the drum opening when large, linty loads are dried, but WH dryers from the redesign to flat fronts and GEs under the right conditions would do that also. It has a lot to do with the hot, steamy air hitting the cooler metal on the way to the lint screen. Large loads make both more steam and lint.
