My cat eats twice a day. 11 am and 11 pm (roughly, anyways. It can vary from between 8 am and 1 am, typically). I don’t leave his food out, I put it down, and he eats it all, no matter when it gets put down. Then again, he also pounces on vegetables that fall on the floor (not that he eats them, but still… lol).
Given your cat’s unwillingness to eat dry, and his veterinary history, I wouldn’t make him eat it, personally. Instead, keep meal time interesting, with lots of different canned foods (I feed a different brand and flavor at each meal), and keep being creative on ways to getting him to continue eating canned, such as offering it at different temperatures, with different broths or water, at different consistencies (varying amounts of water and broth added).
