I think when it comes to any outdoor cooking contraption, you need to identify your needs first. You said "smoker", but I'm not going to assume what you meant by that. Is the SF the best low-and-slow pit out there? No. Is it the best hot-and-fast griller out there? No. Does it impart the flavor of a true stick-burner? No. Is it as convenient as a gasser? Almost, but not quite. Do I love and recommend my EX4? A resounding yes. But that's because it suits my needs perfectly. I love cooking outside no matter the outside temp or the grill temp, but I wasn't doing it as much as I wanted. I gave up on gas many, many years ago (not knocking gassers, just not my personal preference) so the effort to get charcoal/wood fires going for my grill and my WSM really relegated them to weekend use. And I never had the confidence to do anything longer than a pork butt on the WSM. So having one unit to replace everything else, plus the convenience of self-starting and self-maintaining fires, plus the historical reliability of the Weber brand, plus the "gadget" aspect of it (Wi-Fi monitoring, probes, etc.) made it easy to overlook the fact that the SF wasn't the best in any category. Except maybe for being the best all-in-one. I've had mine since just before Thanksgiving last year (right when Gen2 came out), probably average a cook or two a week, and have had very few problems. But I'm also not going to say that, because I haven't had problems, there aren't quality control issues with it. Because it's easy to see that there are. If you are willing to be a student of the pit and not expect it to perform miracles, then I say jump in and join the community. But if you are expecting miracles from something that, at its core, is doing its best to burn and maintain an unpredictable and chaotic wood fire, then I would say look elsewhere because you are setting the SF up for failure.