For starters do you have a hygrometer you can measure the relative humidity where your storing the buds?
The smell will most likely never return but you should still make sure it's being kept at the right humidity during storage.
The one thing that stood out on your original post was harvested when milky . Alot of the plant can differ from the rest of itself. Using a microscope IMO should come after the plant itself appears fully mature.
When the pistols recede into the calyx and appear to be bursting with resin (almost as if they had big seeds in them) is a good time to check. A lot of growers chop before the final hardening stage, and then the product dries too fast and loses the flavor