Some takes from your experiences with this type of smoker

Are you talking about something that requires a wood chip tray and water pan?

I started out with a propane smoker that had a water pan and wood chip receptacle. It was good to learn on that. My main complaint was that it was not close to being air tight and I couldn't modify it enough to make it air tight. My only other complaint was that if it was windy outside, you had to baby sit it to make sure that the burner doesn't get blown out. After a couple of years of learning, I graduated to a BGE. I think it is a good choice for starting out to make sure that you enjoy smoking meat enough to make a larger investment.

For my money, I would rather just buy a cheap offset smoker to learn on rather than a propane smoker.

If you are doing things that take short cooks - ribs, chicken, etc - I think they are fine. For brisket, pork butt, etc - not so good. Really hard to get a good "bark".

Never had trouble with my propane smoker doing pork or brisket. After a few years I found the the product was the same wetter I had wood chips for 3 hours for 15 hours. That was where I found it to be handy. Smoke it for a few hours and after that i.just.needed the heat.

My ceramic smoker does better than the propane or aby offset I've used or eaten from. MAYBE worth going straight for that

I used one for years with good results on everything. Never did brisket though as wasn't big enough.

I'm not a WSM user and love it. But, you can make some good BBQ on a propane.