Cannabis smell is not the exact same smell as skunk - you can differentiate between them with your nose alone, and from this one can have a positive preference

Cannabis smell is not the exact same smell as skunk - you can differentiate between them with your nose alone, and from this one can have a positive preference for the former (and a negative reaction to smelling the latter..) - but they both comprise various thiol compounds, so they are both pretty similar and striking. Sometimes people think the depth of the scent of the un-smoked weed means it contains a deeper variety of specific volatile organic compounds called terpenes. I'm not sure if the distinct aroma-causing compounds make much of a difference for the end result compared to the cannabinoids, but people use their nose as a quality estimator this way.