I don't really know if I've had them smell me and flee? I do know that in my patch of PA there are a lot of deer. I have taken buck at spearing distances with bows, and have had doe bed down within 10 yards of my stand. I am lucky, I get to spend a lot of time in the woods. I have seen deer spook at chipmunks and I've seen them chase away other critters. They have jumped when an acorn dropped and run off.
I have been inside the house and had deer nudging clothes that were on the line drying. I've also seen them feed right next to the impact zone during live fire howitzer practice at Indiantown Gap. Who knows what they are thinking, heck if they even can think.
I think we anthropomorphize many of the animals we hunt, and that is where we go wrong. "Turkeys are smart and that's why they are hard to hunt." No, not really, they are dumb and flee when something moves suddenly or makes noise. Unlike us they don't think, "Hey, what was that? Let's go check it out." Same thing with deer. Why would a UV bright object suddenly scare a deer? They can't think about it, and realize that the bright object over there is a hunter trying to kill it. Same thing with smell. Why do so many people have intimate encounters with deer during the year and only during hunting season they spook because they smell them.
Like I said, if you think it helps, then anything that improves your attitude will help you. They rarely washed clothes 100-200 years ago. Ever try to wash out buckskins? They usually threw them out when they got so rancid, lice filled, and smelly, that they could not stand it any more.
Baths came around once a year or if they fell in the water.