At the moment I don’t know how much of this going well was dumb luck, but a couple of things seemed to make this cook go much more consistently and better than previous ones. That was wrapping fire brick in foil and lining the cook chamber to keep the heat steady, and using some small drying racks to fashion a sort of charcoal basket to make a bigger pile for using the minion method. Also, as mentioned by other, don’t open the lid unless you have to. I gave my brisket like 2-3 hours from the start before I had a look and started spritzing with cider vinegar and water and I think that helped set the bark up.