Don't be so quick to denigrate the "cookie sheet". Much of the function of getting smoke into the food is NOT quelled by it. It's more a function of oven and venting design. Yeah, it may be able to run at 600 deg but then I've NEVER grilled at 600 in my life even on grills that could.
They did not ask and I did not tell. I was a previous registered user, they sent me parts before for my old Genesis Grill. Re this grill.... They had the serial number and they sent the previous owner new parts too before he sold it to me.
My experience is not the same. The cookie sheet does nothing but collect grease and burned on food that you continue to burn and burn and burn that emits a burned stink, not a sweet smoke smell. Even when you clean it or use foil to cover, the first time you use it again, the grease and food just drips, sticks and burns emitting a burned Pizza aroma that is bad If not awful, at temps between 325 and 400. The old design is just dumb and why I sold all the multiple pellet grills I tried, and believe me, I tried.... I can buy an electric oven and do the same thing without feeding pellets, cleaning the cookie sheet and vacuuming out the fire box.
There is some truth to this. One of my friends has a ReqTec and he rarely cleans it. His drip pan is disgusting. A charred, blackened mess. Looks like a burnt marshmallow.
When I vacuum out my cookers I simply take out the so called "cookie sheet" a quick scrape with a putty knife. Nothing more rigorous that than. I don't see the issue. And sometimes I do some VERY long, and greasy cooks. And sometimes I crank them up to 450-500 deg and have no issues with bad smells or anything. Every 3rd to 5th cook (depending on what the cooks have been previously), I spend all of MAYBE 10 min. Maybe no even that long. If I have to clean the RTD might take 2 or 3 min longer total.