Lot of people use the tuning plates. It may come down to a personal preference. I ran several biscuit tests with the plates in diff configs, and they do balance out the heat. I just found them to be more trouble than I wanted to deal with. Next time ya fire up the Pecos, put temp gauges at both ends of the grate and open the FB door. If its like my Brazos, the stack end will heat up. That baffle does funny things.
Yes, I've had my eye on the OC GF. They've not made it to OKC Academys yet so I can eyeball one in person, but its interesting. I found a Masterbuilt 560 at Walmart a couple months ago for $250. And frankly, I've been impressed with the smoke , I expected a lot of white billowy and got a lot of thin blue. Its peaked my interest in GF's.