I've had more pukey cats than not.

I think the canned vs. dry is a YMMV thing - very dependent on the
particular cat and their issues.  I find canned food is a waste of
money, though I feed them small amounts of it daily - it either gets
thrown up just like the kibble, or the fusspots won't eat it and it
dries to a crisp sitting in their dish all day.

My currently not pukey, but skinny underweight cat, will not eat
canned, period.  He will eat kibble, and tiny bits of banana.  That's
all he'll touch.  He's off to the vet today, though for reasons
unrelated to puking.

Our best success has been to add a small does of hairball paste as a
daily or alternate-day supplement.  One of my vets was very convinced
that even among those cats who inhale their kibble then barf, hair
content in the gut can be a contribution.

Oh, and about the comment that cats HAVE to swallow kibble whole - I am
not so sure.  Many DO swallow kibble whole, but all 3 of mine are
definitely more than capable of crunching it up.  One will actually
pick up a mouthful of kibble, remove it from the dish, crush it and
drop all the crumbs, then eat the crumbs.

I have another who spits the crumbs everywhere and even managed to
stick crushed kibble crumbs to the wall behind her dish.  I DID have
one past cat, now departed, who would swallow everything whole and barf
it - canned included - and what helped for him was getting a food that
came in bigger kibbles with different shapes, not just the teeny round
pellets like Science Diet.  MUCH reduced puking because he ate slower.

When in doubt, always check with your vet, but a little bit of a
hairball remedy wont' usually hurt them and might help.

Johanna