just kidding of course but there are a lot of factors:
1. non smokers think all of your weed smells like skunk, mostly
2. habituation, you're around it all the time and maybe the skunky compounds are most easily habituated, how often have you caught a whiff of skunk from your pocket but you don't really smell that same skunkiness when you're all up in the sack or vaping it?
3. there probably isn't a single "skunk" strain, there were probably many, most of the "back in the good old days" stories date back to when people didn't care too much about the actual strain or genetics. It smelled like a skunk so they called it skunk.
that said, it doesn't mean that growers aren't looking for skunky strains and won't be disappointed if a breeder promises skunk and doesn't deliver