No less a pit master than Aaron Franklin will tell anyone who cares to listen that they individually can absolutely turn out a brisket that is equal to or better than what he serves up at his eponymous restaurant. He takes pains to point out it only takes caring attention to detail to that single brisket, which is why I think I run into a greater proportion of BBQ enthusiasts in hacker circles compared to my other communities when categorized by interests. He freely admits his and other pit masters' "secret sauce" lays in how they scale it up and keeps it close to what they produce when they are making only one brisket at home for family and friends.

I generally consider BBQ competitions overblown affairs that are arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. To me, after a certain point it is quite good enough, and any further optimization for "better" doesn't pass my personal cost-benefit filter, and I'd rather spend the cognitive effort on my dining companions.

It is either that, or I possess a philistine palate. The latter is quite possible because I hold a similar opinion of many of the fine dining establishments I've eaten at, from quite fine kaiseki, omakase, Chinese, Michelin-starred French, various fusions, steak, and other restaurants, some with pretty eye-popping per-diner prices. That's mostly because I believe that we're at the nascent, fragile stages of achieving post-scarcity (by no means assured, and still many generations away), and part of that journey involves the elevation of increasingly finer experiences (perhaps some requiring ever-greater cognitive effort to appreciate that I'm not aware of) to a mass market.