You have two different points here though.
The second point is that the "expert" just plain wasnt. A comment on his/her lack of competence as a perfume expert is certainly fair, but not answering the original complaint of "why bother".
So on the first point lets admit the fact that there are experts of all kinds we could care less about. Every day some "expert" on the news comments about stocks and acts as if the Dow or some other national average means anything to anyone-the fact is that the average may give you the weather on Wall Street in general but most people wont benefit by that average in any usable way. So personally I ignore it and consider the "expert" equally useless.
An expert on olfactory senses is a rare thing. Most of us have no real idea what level we are at because the human body actually ignores common smells around it-this is why someone with pets doesnt think the home has a very distinct odor of "pets" while someone who has no pets feels as if they just walked into the zoo. A smoker doesnt pick up on the pungent smell of a smokers clothing and home either, but a non-smoker is almost knowcked out by it. Our body's sense of smell and how it works with the brain is quite amazing.
For someone to sample and descibe such a collection of perfumes and fragrances as flow from New Jersey, Montreal, and Paris into our country on a given year would be quite a challenge. I dont know that one could actually develop the fine olfactory tuning to easily call out one fragrance over another-there are many knock-offs and many coke/pepsi similar ones with users who insist they are distinct.
Yet fragrance is a booming business and has been as far back as there has been sex and civilization in coexistence. We have archeological evidence showing its use by men and women in ancient Sumaria and Egypt and Rome and Greece-and countless other cultures too. It would seem that covering up the natural smells of our body and our world have been a regular part of being civilized-to say nothing of the art of seduction which certainly includes using appeal to the senses in ALL ways including smell.
Someone who asks "why bother" clearly is missing two important points. Sex and money.
Any woman can tell you that smell matters-his smell and hers. It has been proven scientfically and socially.
And any businessman will tell you that an ounce of water with a few chemicles which produce a popular fragrance at a cost of a few cents which can then be sold for $50 plus a bottle is a damn good business. And the vaugeness of what makes one better than another even helps it be profitable (check out those ads for Axxe body sprays for men and how it is implied they will be beating the women off with a stick for instance-we all know it doesnt happen, yet Axxe is clearly doing well) or easy commercial profit direction (fragrances by J-Lo or Brittny Spears are sold by their celebrity and not really the odor itself).
So in short-show a little respect. Smells Sell.
