At least one of the main bearings has thrust faces on the front & back to arrest thrust movement of the crankshaft. Mistakes can be made but how a person handles that may also end up being another mistake. I would say that when a person has a known problem with an unknown outcome. They should be curious. It may be a lot less expensive to repair now than later. If the crank or mains are damaged, it will not fix itself. If they are still good, then bolt it back together and go on down the road. I would check all the rod bearings too. They are more fragile than the mains are. It will generally only cost the gaskets to check out the bottom end. Compression is a whole nother thing. If the cylinders were dry then it might have glazed the cylinder wall finish. Fretting corrosion stinks and may be what you were smelling. A dry cylinder wall will start to corrode in just a few days. I wonder how much lubricant was on the parts to begin with?