Stove/Oven...Along that line, why would you buy just a 4 burner Stove when you can get them with 6, 8 ,12 burners? You can get built in Griddles, Charbroilers, Deep Fryers, and 100,000BTU Wok Burners. The extra Burners and goodies are always useful. Why would anybody buy a Regular Oven when a Convection Oven cooks more evenly and faster. Why buy an Oven with just a Dial that can only be set to one temp, when you can get an Oven with digital controls, multiple time and temp set points, Combination Steam, Cook, Hold and Chill Ovens, or even Smoker Ovens that can do it all.
It is all about what you have decided you want to mess with, how much continuous time you have to babysit it and what you have to spend...A $300 horizontal offset is made of thin steel that does a poor job of holding heat, leaks more than a sieve, is impossible to maintain a steady temp for 6-20 hours without constant feeding and tweaking dampers and requires tons of mods to get a mediocre unit.
Maybe the buyer is disabled and can't chop wood, haul it around, fuss with a burn barrel or feed small splits and spend all night tending a fire without one or more people staying up as well to assist and be a " Go-fer ". Maybe the buyer lives in an Apartment that does not allow any type of BBQ equipment that is not Electric. Maybe they are old and just want to set and forget their Insulated smoker so they can stay cool, warm and/or dry, in their recliner and have great tasting smoked meat year round....Oh Wait!...That's ME! Well for the last 4 years.
I did have a heavy duty New Braunfels horizontal stick burner for 20 years...BUT...There was no such thing as Digital Electric smokers and no SMF to do research with great guys like Bearcarver to explain the pro's and con's of an electric smoker. 25 years ago I only smoked a few times a season because my three Daughters were babies and the Mrs.' frowned on my drinking a 12 pack of Beer and sitting infront of the smoker for hours at a time. An Electric would have been used more often. I took 6 months to make the decision to get my first MES 40. That was after extensive review of Gasser's and the very few Pellet smokers at the time. The Smokin-it models, at the time, were either too small or too expensive with shipping. CookShack was WAY TOO PRICEY! And I was not about to be tied to proprietary, single source, Bradley Pucks. The MES 40 Gen1 20070311 was redesigned to make the occasional Coil failure a breeze to replace and inspite of the fact the the New Gen2 was on the way, Dodged that Bullet, most of the Gen1 owners were happy and had no issues...I went for it.
There is no such thing as the BEST smoker for everyone. If Stick Burners were the Be all and End all of smokers, there would be no such thing as Electric, Gasser's, Pellet Pooper's, Gravity Feeder's, Kamado's or Water Smoker's. And nobody would would own more than one type...A Stick Burner would be all they need...JJ