With all the focus on the smoke, let me just say that my main focus on a Chuck is to beat that bad boy into submission so if asked, one would wonder why you would pay stupid prices for filet mignon.
I have found that the grade of beef dictates the approach to the cook. I have done dozens of Chuck's with absolutely no smoke and yet, never once regretted the decision. That's what I was getting at with my "means and methods" comment. My main decision in the SV pot is texture. Do I want to pull or slice. If I slice, do I want filet mignon or a more traditional brisket cut. That is the magic in the SV pot. Like Kenny said.. "Gotta know when to hold them.. know when to fold them."
Granted, I have only been using the bath for a couple years now, but I have watched all manner of bovine, yard bird, and piggy suck in smoke over the last 50 years or so. I look at the bath as a tool in the box to be used in addition to a pit that assists in plating a particular cut in the best possible manner that fits my preconcieved thought process.
With all that said, I don't do the day to day shoppin so most days I am dealing with whatever the wife drags back from the dollar bin at Wally World. I swear that woman would run over a cete of Badgers to get a dollar off a piece of meat, and yet you would think I was married to Imelda Marcos if you saw her shoe closet.
Sigh, we all have our cross to bear, I suppose. She is a good woman and I woke up in the emergency room one night to find her sleeping on the hard floor beside my bed. I suppose I can figure out how to cook anything she decides to bring me without complaint.
Anywho, my point to all this was smoke has it's place just like anything else. I SV'd a Chuckie a couple weeks back without ever getting near one of my smokers. Made some of the best Sammie's that I have had in a bit...
It's all about that base...
Carry on.