I have an offset stick smoker, an electric smoker and a pellet smoker and I love them all. I'm an equal opportunity smoker.

Amen.

Yup, my Komodo does the same thing and costs less to use.

I have a Traeger that I am happy with -- my second one in the last 20 years. Yes, lower and longer is necessary to get the best bark. I also like being able to turn it on and 20 minutes later slide a pizza onto the stone. I had not thought of using a smoke tube to increase the amount of smoke on the Traeger, as I usually reserve it for use with the Weber gasser.
Of course, when I grow up I'd like a real stick burner ...

You can get pretty close with a gravity smoker. The MasterBuilts are pretty cheap and prolly won't last long, but they work pretty good and have a built in temp controller. Old Country makes one that is a lot beefier that you can pair with a third party controller like a FireBoard. They'll burn sticks mixed with coal. Some folks claim they can run mostly sticks. Not exactly like a stick burner but a lot closer than a pellet grill.

And I do have a RecTeq, but I use it as a grill not really as a smoker. Biggest thing I'll smoke on it is ribs when I'm busy. Anything bigger IMO really loses a lot compared to my stick burner.