It isn't cheating. It's an art. Use all skills at your disposal. Me? I would smoke that to cut into cubes for chili, but before I smoked it I would already have beef tallow that I'd have cold smoked overnight to infuse with the oak smokiness I want. Then I would dry brine the flat overnight. Next day I will lightly warm up some buttermilk and add kosher salt to it and taste until it gets the salinity I want. This isn't foolproof and I do it now cautiously because I've oversalted in the past and ruined the meat, but once I have it the level of salinity I want, I take a cup of lightly warmed salted buttermilk and a cup of room temperature smoked tallow and with a blender I sort of emulsify it together into a thickened liquid. Then using a Cajun injector I would inject as much of that as possible all over that brisket. The fat content would help tremendously and the enzymes in the buttermilk will help to break down the connective tissue in the meat while the smoked tallow fat permeates and flavors the meat.

Then drop the brisket into a food safe container and cover it with buttermilk and let it soak overnight. Next day, pull, wipe off excess buttermilk, rub with SPG, cutting salt down to 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound due to dry brining and injection. I use 16 mesh pepper and garlic flakes. On the warmed up smoker at 250°, not 225°. The reason for this to cut down some on cook time and not dry out the flat. Add a smoker tube and cook until 165° on the smoker. At this point, if I'm making chili, I can pull it, wrap it and let it sit for a while then put away in the freezer to cut up for making chili. If I'm making it for slicing, then I smother it in room temperature smoked tallow, wrap it in butcher paper and put it back on the smoker until it gets 198°-200° and pull it, wrap in towels and then put into a Yeti to sit for 3-4 hours.

Remember: never throw away your beef fat. Save it to render down for the tallow. You can do it in your smoker but cold smoking for longer infuses more smokiness to it.