John, cook your "grilling meats" like pork chops and such to whatever temp you deem safe. However, it's best to smoke your BBQ meats to TENDERNESS, as in "like buttuh", and I don't mean cold butter!
Never probed ribs for tenderness in my life, but I usually stick a probe in whichever pork butt I think will probably get done first. When it's IT reaches about 188*, then I'll check it, as well as the other ones. However, the temp gadgetry is just a help in knowing when to start checking.
You'd think that if commercial pork was standardized, ribs and pork butts would be tender at a certain temp all the time. However, even if every piece of meat is pretty standard in terms of fat and such (except for size), there are still variables that affect finished IT*, especially the cooking temp. Faster you cook, it's logical that the finished IT* is higher. Foiling during the cook also will raise the finished IT* meat reaches before getting tender.
Beware that most published estimated temps/times are on the short side if cooking on the wsm. Going by the OE dome gauge, I prefer to smoke pork butts overnight at an average of 225*, and it's about 14 hours for an average 8lb. butt. Meaty four pound or so St. Louis spares get tender for me in about 5 hours or so, cooking a little hotter, but not over 250* or so.
Hope that helps. Just get cooking and have some fun with it.
