I think it's definitely the grease drippings burning that causes the flavor I'm talking about. Some people can't stand it. It's why people cook directly on steel drums and the like. To me it's a lot stronger on charcoal. The taste on my Genesis is sometimes too clean to my liking.
Dustin,
I have a couple suggestions. First, let me say that I love cooking on kettles. Sadly, I virtually never do regular grilling, just BBQ on them, but I do really like the authentic flavor, too. I know Weber was trying really hard with the brilliant "flavorizer" design to create as much of the smokey flavor from burning drippings as possible while at the same time preventing flare-ups. It was a balancing act, but I think they did well, and for many people the "clean" gas taste is actually preferred. Myself, I like more smoke (while my wife has zero tolerance
).
So, anyway here are two ideas:
1) A smoker box or one of the newer "smoke tubes" can really make a big change in how your food tastes. Your neighbors will be more jealous whenever you grill, too! I know some don't feel that these make much impact, but that hasn't been my personal experience. I have never used the smoke tube, but I am really interested in using one with wood pellets.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B07FMQ3PS1/tvwb-20
That leads me to the second idea:
2) There are pellets you can buy that have a high charcoal content.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B07HX6RSGN/tvwb-20
Again, I don't have personal experience (YET!) but based on what I have read, mixing 1/3 or these with 2/3 of your favorite wood pellets in one of those smoke tubes sounds like an awesome way to make your gas grill produce a much closer taste to a charcoal grill (a smoker box would probably work fine as well).
You may well well have already tried some or all of this, but I toss it out for everyone's consideration.