Mr. Cue-
Of course a Jambo is worth every dime, it's just most people can't afford to dish out the $5.5k+ for the "economy" model, let alone a J3 or J5. The baby J is nice, but if you want something larger than a 24x48 on a trailer, it's too small (and still $3.5k). PCC also makes fabulous cookers, but they can get pricey as well. They're meat monster is one bad a$$ rig, but it can get up to $11k. For a big name company, Lang probably gives you the best deal for your dollar.
On another forum I saw Shirley Fabrication. Like you and PCC, I had never heard of them until I saw people commenting on how the quality of their smokers is outstanding. One guy is a weld inspector at a nuke plant and said the welds on their cookers are top notch. So I contacted them and was able to customize a cooker the way I wanted it and it ended up costing over 1k less than a Lang of similar size. A new Lang 60 deluxe will cost $4k. My SF 24x60 with a larger warming box and fire box than a Lang, with a few added customizations is $2800.
All the large companies put out a fine product. I've never seen/heard of anyone regretting making a purchase from them. The only regrets are that they didn't get the bigger one after they out grew the one they bought. I was planning on getting a 48 original from Lang, but went with the bigger one from SF. I'm sure there are other small companies like them around, you just gotta dig a little deeper in your search.