Hard wheat flours tend to be chunky and easily sieved. Soft wheats, on the other hand, tend to have a weak, crumbly protein matrix. This matrix holds starch granules loosely and tends to release whole granules when milled. This results in a flour composed primarily of whole starch granules. Encapsulated starch absorbs less water than free starch.
Soft wheats tend to have lower water absorbing capacity than hard wheats.
You want your bread to be moist and chewy. You must use a flour with high water-holding capacity to obtain such loaves. If you are a fancy cookie maker, you want light, chrunchy cookies. You must use a flour with a low water holding capacity. The desired water-holding capacity of a flour is going to vary with each different product.