Probably whenever the first hydraulic cylinder was invented.
The piston seals could be completely removed and it still wouldnt drift if the valve is good.
The rod end and base end of the cylinder hold different volumes of fluid. So for a cylinder to collapse, the fluid on the base end is greater than the rod end, and since the fluid dont compress, it has to LEAVE the body of the cylinder via external leak or leaking past the valve. Otherwise NO movement will happen even if piston seals are completely removed.
For whatever reason, this topic has come up many times in the past few months. Leaking piston seals causing a loader boom to drift is a VERY popular but unfounded myth, that many that dont understand hydraulics seem to keep propagating.
If you are a mechanically inclined individual, picture this:
Take a cylinder and totally remove the piston and seals all together. Now re-assemble, fill with oil, and put plugs on the cylinder ports. Do you think you can collapse the rod into the cylinder full of oil?
If you believe you can, where does the oil go that the rod displaces?
Again, this seems to be a popular myth here as of recent, but it is false. For a cylinder to move, oil has to exit or enter the cylinder. It cannot simply just bypass the piston. and the only way to enter and exit is a faulty valve or leaking fitting, or leaky gland, or something else in the hydraulic system not doing what it is supposed to.