Diffferent yeasts can be very different. Even different strains of the same species can produce remarkably different product. I know very little about this yeast species (only what I read in about an hour), and was suggesting possible ways to minimize it and it?s effects. I do know some about brewing and have bred my own yeasts, but I'm not an expert. Mostly wine and corn mash, but some beers(ginger beer is a favorite) or "home brews" as my grand dad called it.
There was one article that suggested the yeast needed pollen or brood comb to produce all of the aromatics that the bees respond to, fwiw.
The reason for "washing" and added cooking times was to decrease contamination by the undesirable yeast, and kill it off... to avoid its effects and flavors. I have never actually seen "slimed" honey. And was assuming it is more readily dissolved than good honey and could be removed by flushing the comb with water along with wasting some good honey (the slime washing off faster than the honey dissolves). If this is wrong, someone please correct me.
What I find shocking is if the species of yeast that makes the slime can thrive in the relatively low water content honey and continue to ferment it. I was assuming that it gets additional water from bodies of bee larvae and excretions of the beetle larvae.
When it comes to you describing honey fermenting on the shelf, that still tastes and smells ok ... it also makes me wonder if those jars had higher water content than usual and the yeast responsible may not have been kodamaea ohmeri. Especially if those jars had a layer on top that was "runny" and fermented ... with thick unaffected honey underneath. I've never seen this happen to honey. I've seen it with mold across the top once in my life that I can recall and lots of crystallized stuff, but never fermented.
anyway, not an expert by any stretch of imagination, just saying what I might try, and hoping those that are more knowledgeable will speak up so I can learn before actually facing the same problem.
Maybe beemaster can answer your question about the taste of "beetle honey" after ferment. I was assuming it would affect it, thus the "washing" and cooking.