Everything holds scent. Your finger oil that goes on each step you climb with, your hairs that fall out from taking your pack out, to climbing the tree, your skin cells that are shed by the millions per minute. If you're worried about tape holding scent I assume you've had no success hunting. Play the wind, know your thermals. If your confidence comes from minimizing your scent, you will never have confidence. A deer cannot smell you upwind, if they're downwind you planned wrong.
The corners on the sticks need to be filed/ sanded as they're sharp and can compromise the straps; I'm not so much bothered by the noise they make because I can minimize that with precise movement, once the sticks are unstacked they make no noise.