My favorite rig (gone now since I'm rotating Ewe-stun to Los Anchorage) was a stick burner offset smoker. I believe that the only way to get to truly and completely smoke something was with wood chunks or sticks as the fuel.
If one end of the spectrum is a stick burner and the other end of the spectrum is a propane grill or (yikes!) and electric grill, the 3-4 times I've cooked over a Traeger seem to indicate that the Traeger (particularly with quality pellets) gets to about 85% of the stick burner smoke experience.
For me a big part of the overall smoking experience is the babysitting of the stickburner....but I wouldn't hesitate to use a Traeger (or other quality Pellet grill) and will likely get one once the rambling days are over.