What should I do with too-dry vanilla beans?
You can still use them in most of the recipes you would otherwise.  In custards, like ice cream, just soak the whole bean in the hot liquid (that will eventually end up in the final product) for a moment and it will re-hydrate enough to use easily.  Many, many recipes are such and you'll just need to soak them a moment in the recipe's liquid.

Worst case - bust out the booze and roll your own extract.