Nice work. The brisket looks amazing. I love the temp control of a pellet smoker. Just being able to store several different small bags of pellets vs. big bags of lump and chunks makes it worth it to me. And they make great Q.
I was never able to manage the temp in my ceramic consistently without a temp controller. I fought with the vents for years, almost ditched it for a pellet smoker, bought a temp controller and then gave up on it for real and went electric when everything hit the fan 18mos ago and I couldn't find quality lump anywhere consistently.
Let me teach you how to ch
eat 
https://www.smokintex.com/
I bought one of the smaller tailgate sized ones. It's an extremely well thought out and well built contraption. It's a commercial grade smoker that's been sized down to run on 110V for residential use. I absolutely love this thing. It's been life changing in the food cooking part of the my life. I'll never go back.
Everything about it is easy. It's a no brainer to cook on. 2oz of chips for every 10lbs of food you put in it. Plug it in, turn the knob to 225, set the timer and forget it. Cleanup takes a few minutes w/some mild soapy water and a tea kettle of warm water to rinse everything out of the drain in the bottom of the unit. Wipe it out, throw the food grade racks, hanger brackets, smoker box & drip pan in the dishwasher. Once it's cleaned, I roll it inside to store in the pantry. Small bags of chips are so much easier to find and store than 20lb bags of lump and big bags of wood chunks.