Resource Helpers were introduced in magento 1.6 CE and magento 1.1211 EE, and is part of the database abstraction that was introduced in those versions.
so its the other way round: The code that is not using them is the legacy code.
you can read more in this document: http://www.magentocommerce.com/images/uploads/RDBMS_Guide2.pdf
from it:
A Resource Helper is a new classification in Magento's vocabulary. This entity belongs to the abstraction layer and is designed for the same purpose as an adapter – it abstracts specifics of communication the database.