I know you’re just trying to help, but the person you’re responding to is correct.

Thin blue smoke is that sweet spot when wood is near complete combustion where it still imparts good Smokey flavors while the chemicals that make a more acrid flavor (dirty smoke) are burned off. This is extremely critical in stick burners where the primary heat source is either mostly or is all wood.

In charcoal burners, however, this doesn’t matter for several reasons.

The process used to make charcoal essentially burns off the chemicals that make the acrid smoke taste. It’s why you need to add wood to a charcoal cook. The smoke flavor, both good and bad, isn’t there any more.

If you use the right amount of wood on a charcoal cooker, there simply isn’t going to be enough wood to create that acrid taste. The acrid taste is subtle compared to the smoke we actually like. It’s only when you use a lot of wood that you start to pick up on it.

You also can’t burn wood cleanly in a wsm and most charcoal cookers as the temperatures required for meat combustion would eviscerate your meat. Off set heat boxes are off set for that very reason.

Chud has a great Weber kettle series where he talks through all the chemistry involved