My impression of why you use tape for cross is the lower pressure the riders are running - when you inflate a tyre, it inflates in every direction - not just up where the tread is, but inflating a tub onto a rim will increase the inward pressure holding the tyre in place. When you are only putting 20 psi (or whatever pressure crossers use) into there, the pressure holding the tyre in place doesn't really contribute a lot to preventing it rolling.
Most tubular tape is a mm or 2 thick, so the combination 'belgian' glue job artificially increased the circumference of the glueing bed - that kind of compensates for the lower pressure by stretching the base tape of the tub onto the rim, to simulate the conditions where it has 120 + psi in there.
I might be wrong, but if I rode cross that's what I'd do.