Fortunately for perfumery, ambergris' distinctive odor is principally owed to just two chemicals, ambroxan and ambrinol, both of which are now synthesized.
The bloom and trail effect given by ambergris is replaced with ambroxan, however combining ambroxan and ambrinol does little to recreate a "real" ambergris odour. Those may thousands of other molecules, while perhaps only <5%, give a very distinctive and unique odour. It's like a rich leather bag that's been floating in the ocean for +30y - salty, marine, animalistic, musky and leathery all in one.
"Ambergris has been synthesized, but its synthetic versions are not convincing. They lack an indefinable something that is gained only after years spent at sea."
Probably a bit like synthesized truffle oil, good enough for most people but lacking richness for a trained delicate palate.
The scandal with truffle oil is how difficult it is to find anything remotely real even if you want to, because of the duplicitous wording on packaging and marketing copy.
I think the scandal with truffle is that even refined palates can't find it. Even the most refined restaurants that use actual truffle, are forced to add the fake thing, or most customers won't be satisfied with the dish.
Ambrinol is really disgusting (source: I have a small sample) and only makes sense mixed with the very nice ambroxide (IIRC, ambroxan is a commercial moniker for it).
There's a curious evolution about abroxan's rep. If I'm not mistaken it was Dior that first used the name instead of ambergris in the publicity materials. I guess they were trying to avoid the "they kill the poor whales to make fucking perfumes". But they ended with the "I can't stand that synthetic ambroxan crap, I must be allergic and everybody's wearing Sauvage now".
New perfumes use some other bullshit names like "driftwood", "marine notes" or just "amber" (a very different stuff).
