I grabbed a bag of hickory briqs once, maybe 3-4 years ago...was going to run out on a Sunday and that was all they had in the only local store that was open at the time. One of those 6-P moments I had back then (Proper Planning Prevents P!55 Poor Performance). I really didn't notice any change in flavor or aromas with the food compared to regular KBB. My guess is that the temperature of the burn when the coals are hot enough to cook on may also be hot enough to reduce any potential benefit of having those hardwoods present. True charcoal is reduced to mainly carbon, even though they claim to use oak dust in many brands (can be seen with close examination), so I'd guess the addition of hardwood dust doesn't change things all that much. I generally toss in a chunk or two of smoke wood (grilling with smoke). I didn't feel the increased price was justifiable at all. It cooks your dinner and burns like KBB. It probably took me a month to empty that bag while I pondered any possible differences...I don't recall finding one.
I don't know if things have changed much since I worked in the packaging dept at a charcoal briquette plant 34 years ago, but we bagged 99 brands, including store brands, KBB, RO and generic back then. When we were mid-shift and needed to swap brands to fill an order, we did nothing more than change bags...same charcoal, different bag...imagine that. Kingsford runs their own plants now, IIRC...not sure how many other brands do. Anyway, that's all just trivial info, FWIW.
Eric