Like a lot of people here I started on a charcoal cooker (for me it was a 18.5 WSM). Gosh these things are so efficient and produce good Q, however, I soon outgrew it. I convinced myself that I needed something large, and being spoiled by the simplicity of the WSM, super easy to operate. So I bought an FEC-100.
It too was a great cooker, though it never produced that smoke profile I was looking for. I tried every trick and mod you can imagine... plus, it just seemed a little too easy .... a smoker with a thermostat.
In retrospect I should have bought a stick burner long ago. The older I get the more I realize that half the fun is tending fires. Gives ample time to drink beer and soak the kids with the garden hose. Besides everyone knows when they eat off a stick burner. Heck when I drive by a restaurant I can tell what kind of wood they use by the smell. If it is white oak I always stop!