[Edit] To answer my question, yes, Dropbox does indeed store its application information in your user’s /home folder by default. As long as you don’t wipe your /home folder, you should be good to go once you reinstall the Dropbox app after reformatting/reinstalling your distro (Tested with a few Fedora-based distros, YMMV if you use Debian/Arch). I didn’t have to re-login; the Dropbox app just worked.
Is it possible to reinstall Linux (or distro hop) without losing my Dropbox install? Could I move the Dropbox install to my home folder so it survives the OS install?
Ah ok. So its not so much the current files that you want to retain, but the ability to receive files locally through sync, when someone else elsewhere makes a change?
Sounds a bit like not wanting to remove the Netflix app because its logged in with the unknown password of an ex.