Amen! All the various good and proven cooker designs deal with CONTROLLING COMBUSTION by various means. Out of control combustion is out of control cooking
Over the years I've learned some things about cooking meat using wood:
1. Many people don't have the patience to learn how to best utilize their cooker. The old adage "Know your pit" couldn't be truer.
2. There are a lot of folks who actually like "creosote" (or, similarly, smoke as the main or only flavor component) and they should please themselves but not spend lots of money on a cooker that has to be mistreated to do that or, worse, can't.
3. Generally, you get what you pay for. Cheap cookers are hard to control and will worry you to death. But, super-expensive cookers don't guarantee good results either if they are misused.
4. Match your cooker to what you're going to cook with it. Some cookers are close to "universal" in capability but there are still trade-offs. If you mostly grill steaks you need a cooker that grills steaks very, very well. If you mostly smoke chunks of critter low and slow you don't need an infrared searing machine. The list goes on. That's why you see so many people on this forum list several cookers in their profile.
5. As we go through life, our tastes change and our knowledge grows. Don't be afraid to admit it when that happens
End of sermonette . . .
Hub