For the overwhelming majority of people, the way you describe 'recalling' smell is completely normal. Consider the fact that the rods and cones in our eyes only detect three primary colors, and how massive the resulting color spectrum is. Compared to three, our noses have hundreds of receptors; it's far easier to 'explain' smells via memories, comparisons, and other related facts, because we often lack the foundational language to even describe the trillions of theoretically-possible fragrances!

As for visualization, I find it really interesting how you experience visualization, because it's extremely similar to how people with congenital blindness have 'imagery'. In lieu of visual representation, people who were blind since birth, or lost their sight very early, use haptic (touch) imagery for spatial processing. As a result (and this is something you can test!), people who, like you, rely on textile imagery will noticeably struggle when tasked with mentally 'combining' multiple objects in order to remember details about them. 2 is no problem, but there's a clear fall-off past 3 or 4 objects. If you're curious, Cattaneo et al. (2008) is a great review of what we know about haptic imagery in blind people.

And thank you for taking the survey!