Spend some time in the BBQ capitals of America: Memphis, rural West TN, St Louis, Austin, KC, Eastern NC, Western NC, South Carolina Low Country etc and make some observations: the best BBQ comes from stick smokers and pellets smokers are or middle class white guy gear heads who shop at Bass Pro.
Having spent an amount of time attending BBQ competitions, using the competitive markets as a justification for pellets is N/A because that market has become saturated with bullshit techniques and trickery such as sugar brine injections (again, by middle class white guy, gear heads) to the point that the actual smoking is one of the less emphasized steps in the process of winning. Get yourself a simple side by side smoker and focus on the meat and not geeking out over your equipment.
To my knowledge, no Michelin stars have ever been awarded to BBQ from a pellet smoker however, there are at least 2 bbq joints with rudimentary smokers that have been awarded such honors.
Furthermore, pellet smokers are just LAME. Don’t be lame.