Terpines/ light strength

at the end of the day it is nice to stay mindful of how smell occurs in cannabis at any time...it is always a leaking of the inner contents of a trichome head, whether from a grinder or a pressure gradient or a bound water molecule being snatched out.....or (the most likely or frequent) photon damage, which would be the daily repair cycle. Trichomes are armor, meant to be used to protect the plant. In this sense, it is doing so. so like...if you smell your plants a ton, that is not a good thing persay. Even when dried and cured, done PROPERLY, you wont have much smell at all until the grind. on the grind it will come to life like the dankest of dank. but only if you preserve these trichomes the entire time. in a world of sprayed bud and reterp bros....let us all try to protect our natural CDT we work hard for i typically turn my lights down in intensity as late flower approaches, and may have them on 10% on the final few days just to help save that many more trichome heads intact

even if a plant tolerates excessive light, if the CO2 doesn't exist in proper quantities, the plant can't make use of that extra light. You will not be successful trying to circumvent the Law of Conservation of Mass.

The smell very well could've been from the terpenes burning off. Vpd will also dictate terpene preservation. If you're smelling your plants really strongly, it could be a bad thing. Check your vpd and possibly what kpa certain terpenes burn off at. My main recommendation is keep vpd lower

Terpenes has been cooked by the light …

You have said it yourself you are burning them terps off with heat/light damage