Ok. Let me give my long term evaluation of those baskets I have made. Been using them for 2 seasons and they show very little wear. Good metal I guess. I use them for low and slow cooking, in fact they work great with ribs in my masters’ touch. Never used them in an 18 inch kettle so I cannot comment on that.
Now let me give a bit of set up, I will use heavy duty tin foil to cover the grate where those things are not. That way I force the air to move through the baskets, I also put foil on the side of the baskets toward the meat. I have been using Weber’s for decades, I use a big tuna can for water, I am looking for the mass, not the moisture. Believe me that you can lose as much moisture boiling a steak as you can grilling, it is all about knowing what happens with the muscle structure and heat. I like the brick idea, just never found a reason to invest. I guess I am awful cheap and water works for mass, and mass means temperature control.
I usually use about 3/4s of the coals on a 5 ½ hour cook in those baskets at 225 to 250 degrees, bottom vents opened ¼ to 1/3 inch. Top used as a smoke choke.
I like the snake method but that is not as easy to control or clean as the baskets are. Plus I can add wood chunks into the baskets and it stays where put.
I looked at several systems before doing that hack, and they all look good except 1 thing, heay yo close to the porcelain. Guess I am cheap and want the kettle to last.
To each his own, some will swear by the different products out there, I just did not see any reason to blow over 100 clams when I could just spend less than 20.