Frankly, I'll stick with what I believe are selected hardwoods.
Most of my life, and since I was a small child, I've loved the flavor of Hickory smoked fish. (Or at least that was what the man on the pier told my dad it was) And I do remember the name 'Albacore' and 'Halibut' as choices.
So I stuck with what I liked, Hickory Chips.
Only very lately have I branched out into other smoking woods, like Alder for my Salmon smoking. It has the same smokey goodness, but a milder flavor. Not the "bite" (as I call it) that Hickory imparts.
And now I have a small amount of Apple chips. But can't say I can distinctly tell the Apple from the Alder. At least not yet.
But for all of my smoking life, I always used home made smokers. Simple enclosures, an electric heat source, and a can or container for the wood being slowly burned for it's smoke.
I always smoked for preserving and flavoring.
But now days it seems the lines have been smeared drastically. In order to sell products, anything that makes any sort of smoke gets branded a smoker. Even things that are closer to a smoker in the traditional sense, have enough heat in them to Bar-B-Que a cows butt.
They are a Smoker, but also an outdoor oven as well.
I think when Treager decided to expand their heating business by making a cooker that burns pellet fuels is where the lines began to blur. And the temperature of the art of Smoking Meat for flavor, and to preserve it, began to become a way to cook it.
In my honest opinion, I take exception to a pellet grill being called a Smoker. The temperatures in a Pellet Grill are far too high even at the very lowest. They are designed to burn pellets with an electric heating element and a fan to blast air into a chamber pot that results in a flame... roughly. They even roar.
So how could the subtle nuances of different wood species be differentiated when incinerated in such a manner?
They are about as far away from Great Grandpa's smoke house as California is from Maine.
That said, I do like the idea of pelletised wood fuel. It's absolutely great as a source of wood for smoking, cooking, and heating. It burns very consistently, and reliably in different methods. Mine is to ignite it, then let it smolder to complete incineration making the most smoke a smoldering wood can, with the least amount of heat.
But... just like 'window food' poked at you from a drive through, there is no telling what is really in it. It could be 25% cat crap made to taste good surrounded with painted meat proteins flavor enhanced with beef fat byproducts.
And we'd eat it and say Yum!
Same-o, same-o we burn the pellets, but don't really know what's truly in them. (Except if we find a chunk of plastic in them...)
It's OK to find you are confused about smoking, smokers, smoker-ovens, Pellet grills, or stick burners. The companies marketing these want you to be confused.
Just like they use terms of vagueness calling out Hardwood, when who knows what crap they made it from. It could be pelleted pallets and be a 'Blend'. But it'll burn.
Just like cow tails, bull rectums, and old leather shoes are all "Beef Byproducts". Grind them together, cook them into little chunks, and call it 100% beef dog food.