IMHO any smoker can and will turn out good Q, but you have to learn how to cook on each individual smoker. The ones that you set and leave, for what ever reason, aren't as difficult to learn as say a stick burner. If you don't have the time or patients to learn a stick burner, then you use what you can afford. Stick burners use a large amount of wood and not all are fortunate enough to have access to large quantities of wood and must use the resources available, ie: gas, electricity, charcoal, lump. Those of us who do use stick burners should feel lucky that we can smoke as our forefathers did except we us steel containers not dirt or wooded structures. The stick burners out there should feel lucky they have the resources to do so,or they would be using the other methods. As for separating the groups, I think the methods used on most smokers is basicly the same and all can benefit from someone elses experiences and knowledge, you just have to be able to use the methods of any given smoker on the one you are using. Just my .02 worth.