I used the foil to help with clean-up...does it mess something up??
I used to foil when I started pellet smoking and no longer do. Here are my reasons for no longer doing it...
It is tough to get the foil tight so grease can get trapped in pockets or even in between the foil. The grease in between the foil cause the pan to be dirty anyways.
The foil can cause an interruption in the grease flow.
IMHO the foil blocks the infrared energy created on the drip pan and may cause excessive heat build-up on the pan resulting in possible warping of the pan.
To me letting the grill run on high for 10 minutes after cooking to do a quick burn off is much easier than fooling with foil. Just give it a quick scrape and be done with it.
I also will pull the pan out and stick it in my 4 burner RED for 30 minutes when stuff is really caked on. It acts like a self cleaning oven.
You can try foiling if you like Smoke but you might find that no foil is better... at least I do