It's all a matter of time and (human) energy. Some people have the time do "proper" grilling/BBQ/smoking using entirely wood based products. I'm jealous
. Some of us can't afford that luxury.
My new smoker is electric and I love it. Plug it in, load it with the appropriate meat, liquid, and wood chips, set the correct smoking temperature, and go do whatever else needs to be done. Once an hour or so I add some more wood chips. Four to twelve hours later (depending on what meat, etc. I put in) I've got fantastic tasting food and I didn't have to most of the day attending to it.
Similarly, I agree charcoal results in better tasting grilled food. But if I only grilled when I had the time to deal with charcoal, I'd grill less than half as often. With gas, I light the grill, spend the next 10 minutes finishing up the food prep, and then I'm cooking. I can literally do in on a whim - not so much with charcoal. And with gas, short of a blizzard, I don't give a rip what the weather is - I've literally grilled every month of the year. Heck, often times when I'm doing a recipe that calls for the meat to be 'browned', I grill it on the gas grill instead. And while it may taste a bit better had I used charcoal, it still tastes way better than if I'd cooked it on the stove
