Hey fellow newbie, so I can't help you much, but I'm doing the same this Saturday for our family's xmas and have had similar concerns. So I'm actually switching things up from this this Serious Eat's method a bit based on a couple youtube videos I saw (I know how dumb that sounds).
I smoked my brisket first last night for 3-4 hours on low smoke setting which is about 150 degrees or so, then sealed and put straight into the 155 degree bath for me to take out Friday morning (36 hours later). Then I think I'm actually going to cool quickly in ice bath so that i can put it in a cooler with ice to bring back home 4 hours. Saturday morning I'm going to sous vide it just to bring it back to temp then open it, dry, and smoke again at around 275 for a couple hours or till when the bark comes back decently. I almost might take the kitchen torch to any parts that don't look like they barked well enough.
Search Youtube or Google for "Sous vide everything brisket". I'll post the link below but not sure if that's allowed.
But yeah, I don't completely trust those guys, but their final product looked amazing. They all said it's the best brisket they've ever had, but i don't trust them on that either, just based on their lack of eloquence regarding why it's so good. After watching a couple of their other videos, they seem to say the same about everything they make.
But looking at their final product compared to Kenji's on Serious Eats, who did it the traditional way you're talking, I will go with the former. I'm also one of the ding-dongs who like their real smoke smoke ring, no matter how much it doesn't really make a difference in taste whatsoever, so this is another reason for smoking first, then sous vide.
I don't know, like I said, that's probably not much help, but it might be something worth looking into.
