I've been doing 3 weeks primary, 3 weeks bottle conditioning, 3 days in the fridge (3/3/3 - easy to remember). When I first tasted my pale ale I was blown away with how good it was compared to my previous batches. However, I'm drinking one I let chill for even longer and the character has changed yet again. It almost tastes like a Hefeweizen... The carbonation is probably spot on, my first batches were underwhelming. The Hefe flavor profile could be due to the fact I used a British yeast instead of American because of a mishap, plus learning from my mistakes, etc... still, the taste has changed even over a couple days in the fridge extra.
TL;DR - beer is cool and mysterious (at least for a noob). It's going to be tough to grasp. I prefer basics, a well crafted Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is always so good, it's just crafted to perfection even if it's not mind blowing compared to a whiskey barrel aged stout or something like that.
What I'm wondering is if craft companies take into account the change in beer flavors between when they're shipped out and purchased, then somehow take that into consideration for the recipe. Also, most of the crafts I've purchased were room temp. I wonder if a craft brewery chills their beer for different amounts of time at different intervals once bottled to determine the flavor profile... Or I could be completely wrong, and breweries use different methods than I know of to preserve the immediate taste of the beer. I presume the sediment in homebrew bottles has a lot to do with the changing flavors I'm speaking of... rambling now.