I had a chronic stuffed nose into like the 2nd grade. So when I started taking steroids for my nose, I was able to really smell for the first time, and started noticing cooking smells. Overall, kind of meh, missing out on smell is mostly not a big deal. Smell is useful to detect odorants added to dangerous gasses and to know when the cooking is done if your smoke detector is too far from the kitchen, and it can help detect spoiled food (but visual inspection usually works too), but like I don't feel like my life was worse before I could smell, and there definitely wasn't a big step change improvement.
I think someone going from normal smell ability to no smell ability might feel differently. One of the top joys in my life is eating and a large portion of that experience is smell. Take it away and I'd expect to lose a lot of what I enjoy. Not just as I eat it but even before, the smells of prep. Smelling garlic being fried or the stink of shrimp paste knowing delicious things are arriving soon. The smell of baking bread that makes my mouth water. Etc....
Another example which might seem the opposite for most. I don't personally understand the appeal of stinky tofu (yet). (all over China but most of my experience with it were Taiwan). To me it tastes like a savory tofu dish where someone set a bowl of steaming hot feces on plate next to you while I you eat. In other words, to me, nothing is added by the smell. Take it away and it would be a standard savory tofu dish. But, all of my Taiwanese friends crave this stuff and I think the smell is part of it.
