Two friends have bge knockoffs. They love the flavor, but found their use slipped off quickly with family's. The time required was just too much and they relegated their use to special occasions and bought a conventional gas bbq for daily use (with costco traeger wood chips when they want more flavor). If you dont use the bge style grille for a while, it fills up with mold. Yippee, just what you want on your cooking surface.
I am running a decade old propane ducane. No complaints, replaced one heat distribution plate and the ignitor (just the box, not the wires). I personally hate how most Weber's run the burners from the side tray. It wastes an entire work surface and I find it much easier to split things up left/right instead of front/back (meat at lower temp on left, veg seared at high temp on right). The ducane is not a very hot bbq, I normally leave at least one burner on high. A weber spirit at the inlaws is ridiculously hot. Leave the burners on low and you are over 400. Most cooking requires you to turn off at least one burner to keep the temps under control.
Propane vs ng I am not convinced about. If you have an ng tap obviously it is super convenient. Some friends complain about they dont get hot enough ( which shouldnt be a problem, that is a design issue) and I know people that have accidentally left them on for days (turned them to high to burn off the remnants and then forgot to go out and turn it off, discovered it was on next time they went to bbq).
I would get a side burner on my next one. My wife likes boiled corn on the cob and it kills me to have a vat of boiling water in an air conditioned house. Also helps during power outages.
I built a bbq enclosure at the last house. I miss it every day. Having a roof, lights and a seat means you bbq at least 3 times as often. I would go cheap bbq and enclosure over good bbq anyday.
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