trichomes are good to use at end... by other pictures in your diary, you are not at the end.
the trichoes formed early will be ambe at some point but you can only see top layer later on. i guess less o2 helps, but they are still going to be further degraded on older growth than new growth.
your pistils are still long white hairs, mostly. You have a while to go.
pistil coloration and retraction
density of buds
trichomes
3 good things to keep you on track. the singular tunne-vision on trichomes is slightly misguided, imho. the general science behind it is spot on but i don't think how it is interpreted and used is considering the different ages of material invovled. only looking at the surface can't paint the full picture of what is going on.