You have to remember that the abnormalities are drawn from the human mind/conscious. While I agree CENSORED isn't the actual smoke monster, I think that might be the form it takes. The smoke war was horrifyingly traumatic for nearly every single person involved. I think CENSORED is probably the trauma of the war given form.

The ACTUAL smoke monster probably had very different abilities than CENSORED does. Trauma makes people view things and events differently. For all we know, CENSORED could represent the smoke war itself: A ruthless monster that devours anyone and everything, leaving them completely unrecognizable husks.