The grate worked out great and although there wasn't a time it felt like it was unstable I think I might wire-tie it to the ring to have that extra assurance that everything that was sitting atop it would be ruined if someone wasn't careful.
I'd wire-tie around these flared out tabs on the lid support.
I'm going to do some tests with a remote themometer for temps and try ribs one day and salmon another.
The tins were getting warm slowly without the lid over it- very slowly. Putting the lid on contained the heat and smoke and the queso melted at a better rate and the chili warmed up to a simmer with the lid on so maybe perfect for smoking up under there!
here's a link to the video of it in action