If taste is all about curing and drying, why do you use molasses, sweeting agent, or any high carbo supplement?? There is something called a terpene and flavinoid profile to each plant. Those are the aromas and and taste that the plant produces. There are ways to increase the production of said terpene and flavinoid profiles to each plant through sweeteners and through high carbo supplements in late flowering. Yes, to preserve and to evolve the taste, THAT is in the art of drying and curing. But to say that what the plant ingests and how the plant ingests it has no causal effect on what we taste and smell, is simply ignorant. Why do you think organic medicine tastes and smells better? Because of those natural carbo's and naturally broken down nutrients by beneficial bacteria and those enzymatic process's. The same thing applies to the naturally broken down nutrients the plant has stored away in the fan leaves. If you still see green on the plant's leaves by the time you have "starved" the plant through 7-10 days of flushing and 3 days of darkness, then there is still nutrients in the leaves meaning that it still had plenty of nutrients to eat up. I do this with every harvest and every time come out with green leaves, with purples, blues, pinks, yellow, and orange leaves.
The water is the plants growing medium. Over time nutrient salt build up occurs, especially if your using salty nutes like AN, GH, ect. Minimally, I like flushing my reservoir so I get rid of that build up in the water and in the root zone. That's my main goal because I don't think anyone like smoking nutrients.