I won't say that Mad Scientist comparison is dishonest. I would term it disingenuous . He's got his thumb on the scales.
Camera shows the temp in celsius. That's the surface temp of the smoker, but I would guess it would also translate to cooking temps inside.
He's running the Franklin at 133* celsius = 271 Fahrenheit
The Brazos at 112* celsius = 233 Fahrenheit
First, he's built the fire in the Franklin right next to the cook chamber, where more direct heat can enter the cook chamber. Not so in the Brazos.
Why not run both smokers at same temp ? At 271 that's a bigger fire that produces more air flow. The Franklin already has strong air flow so its gonna pull more heat into the cook chamber. Franklin has designed his smoker for maximum air flow.
I could run my Brazos at 233 with just a coal bed. To get that temp, would take a tiny fire. And because of the air flow problems with the Brazos, I would cut my air intake down to just the amount necessary to burn a clean fire. That would get me pretty even temps from end-to-end. The Brazos does better at low air flow.
If he runs that Brazos at 275, the firebox end of the cook chamber is gonna get hotter than the stack. That's just basic physics. He knows that, he taught physics. By putting on the stack extension and cutting out the baffle, he's increased the air flow in the cooker and a bigger fire is gonna get pulled into the firebox end of the cook chamber.
People who have removed the baffle and added a collector to their Brazos, report higher temps on the firebox end. They lose up to 12" of cooking grate.
Mad Scientist also says the cooking grates on both smokers are the same size. That's a half truth. They are the same size, but the Franklin has an 8" shelf on the firebox end, because Aaron Franklin knows that space is not gonna be usable. The Franklin has a 47" cook chamber, brazos 40". MS is trying to tell you that the space on the Brazos grate next to the firebox is usable. He's rigged his comparison. Its not usable.
He showed us his fire in the Brazos and I strongly suspect this was the coal bed when he took the thermal picture. Its big coal bed. Not much fire.