Ok here's my take as it goes i love my pit and have cooked thousands of killer Q using the stick burner. Many tech to stick as well. Ive done cooking with my stick burner by preburning logs in my burning barrell and then use the charred coals to produce a nice blue smoke. This method works excellent for keeping your Q from getting overly smoked and creating a bitter flavor. But i've also burned logs seasoned of course right in my smoker box with great results as well. Used this method for many years Both work excellent but require a lot of prep work for your fire. To start i usually use the logs to get the smoke rolling and my temps up then switch to the preburn method.
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Now as for pellet smoke haha well when the first came out i thought they were crap and went on the warpath every time someone said they used one. You know thats NOT BBQ. Electricity and pellets HA. But as i ggot older and more damaged i started to rethink that.
 So i bought a traeger texas. At first i loved it then hated it to many massive temp swings. But after mods and a new pid controller i can dial the thing to a perfect temp every time.
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Now the Pellet smoker rules the industry even in comps making many purist very angry sort of like presidential elections hahaÂ
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As far as temps go the lower the combustion temp the more smoke you produce but this can lead to a bitter taste were as higher combustion leads to a cleaner blue smoke but much less the ideal temp is that spot just between  the two.
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This is were pellet grills now excel. The convection created by the blower works to even the out and keep the smoke rate more balanced and why the blowers work on multi speeds depending on what the grill is trying to do more smoke less blower speed and vice versa. And boos convection exist in all  smokers or they would just die out from lack of oxygen even in grillls without a mech advantage. The chimney creats the airflow across  the grill naturally thats why the chimney is opposite the firebox. Â
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Also you dont need to use water in a pellet grill because of it's ability to hold closer temps more constantly the enviroment inside the cooker remains a higher moisture zone as the protien gives off moisture during cooking.
Thus the closer temps are much better for the end result especially for smaller cuts like ribs or chicken were larger temps swing can make for soso BBQ. Causing the protien to stiffen up with the higher side swing. Larger cuts do not suffer from this issue due to size there more forgiving but i still find my pellet smoker does produce a better flavor with the larger cuts as well.Â
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So for me a pellet smoker is a must mine is able to run at very low cold smoke temps and 500 + deg but i never run my smokers above 400 deg for smoke roasting only. If i want sear out comes my webber. Dont like radiant heat no flavor just heat. I used to install those in Home Depots over doorways up north to keep cashiers warm with doors constantly opening and closing but not to COOK ON. Charcoal or wood only otherwise use your oven or stovetop
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Ok rig size it's not the size but how you use it! haha Isn't that what they say? Â Well for me my smaller smokers were always a pain in the arse for temp swings they just didn't seem to burn long enough and larger rigs burned a larger amount of fuel. But when i'm doing Q i usually have more than one thing going anyway so a smaller smoker never really gets used. But if space is limited they are your best bet. Or a webber setup as Brother Smoke suggested.
The dual purpose feature is not really why i bought it and my smokers never get used for it any way. So smaller i mean ive made mini smokers out of a webber smoky joe and cooked a pork butt it was good but no where near the quality of my bigger smokers. So yes i would say to small will work but not worth the effort.
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I can tell you the Q i produce on my pellet is spot on my pid controller can give me higher or lower amounts of smoke depending on what i require and the type of protien i'm cooking. And as far as smoke quality and amount i have no issues with smoke flavor i get tons of smoke if i want it. And the quality of the smoke is second to none. So sweet and nice flavored. I buy excellent pellets from FireCraft no chem binders great pellets. But i do love my stick burner with some good RI cherry wood
I know others have had issues with smoke production but this is not the case with mine i get as much smoke as i want depending how i set my controller.Â
