It's great that you have the material, tools, and skills, @Jules V, to fabricate a Vortex from scratch. Really, I mean that.
But the vaaaaaast majority of us do not have all three, so that is not an option for most of us. There are a lot of us Vortex user here and (I think) most of us feel like we get a pretty good result from it, particularly on chicken wings. There are also a lot of "poor-tex" users who , I think, feel about the same. Finally, there a bunch of members who just use the two charcoal baskets in the middle, and, guess what, they feel like they a getting pretty dang good wings, too.
Can I prove, scientifically, that the radiating (IR) effect of the cone makes a difference? Hell no, I wouldn't even know where to begin. Just for starters, how do make sure that, scientifically, you have the exact same amount of charcoal, with the same dampness, in each experiment? I have no idea ! ! !
Fortunately, I do not have to wait, I already have a Vortex, and, do I feel that it's a valuable, if limited, part of of cooking "arsenal"?
Hell yes ! ! !
(If you do the experiment, I will, excitedly, look forward to reading the results.)
BD