any pics ? ... could be anything even something harmless for the plant
thrips are too small to get trapped with the trichrome, and never seen them on sugar leaves or crawling on the buds they much prefer lower leaves, and i have had two pretty severe infestations before worrying about it and as said damage shape en spreading across the leaves doesn't look like thrips damage
crawling on the buds could be spider mites, but well they don't get trapped either on sugar leaves, and damage size and spreading across the leaves doesn't look spidermites damage.
aphids doesn't damage the leaves like that ... same for barnacles and scale insects, broad and russet mites, fungus gnat, whiteflies, mealy bugs , leaf miners, caterpillars, inchworms etc ...I had a vid of the thrip larvae crawling on the underside of the leaves, but must have deleted it. It was tiny, wormlike with 2 little feelers in the front and white/cream colored. The adult that was found on the buds had wings and was about the size of a fungus knat…..just a tiny bit larger.