Where'd you source your AK from? I ran some fems I bought from over the pond like 10 or so years ago. Female Seeds I believe was the name of the outfit... Not sure if they're even still around. But it was the best yielding dankest buds I had grown up to that point! After 2 identically successful grows with those seeds and with nearly identical plants. I bought another pack and would pop those as my go to when I needed to guarantee a good head stash while still trying to hunt for other things/strains/flavors I liked. It stacked hard and fast!
On the stem rub thing. I don't believe it means nothing, nor that it's everything. But lemme give ya my personal take on it. It's not a cut n dry, one way street... Like.. if it smells = it's dank and if it don't = it ain't, type of deal. Some could not smell much while growing or even at chop, but could still smoke and taste great after harvest and/or cure. Smells and flavors can change (sometimes drastically, sometimes not) between veg, flower, harvest, and cure. Some for the better, and others not so much. Others can smell a ton while growing, but not taste or smell much after harvest, or simply doesn't pack the punch you expected. I've experienced it every which way.
There are many other things one could look for also as there's dozens of things, all in culmination, that make a plant desirable. Thinking for example of the entourage affect in that there are many factors intermingling together and reacting with or to each other that determines the affects the plant gives us in the end product. But, like J up there mentioned, it can at very least be used as an identifier when hunting for certain known and/or desirable traits.
