Greetings Ghost_rider, and welcome to the forum.
Statements below are based on the price you listed.
My
for someone new to smoking game
Find one you like in that price range.
That way if you discover you are serious about it, you can upgrade to higher end units.
For your questions:
I believe you will probably experience some temp swings.
However that is true to a certain extent for all pellet grills. Ones with better controllers/design will have smaller differences.
Hot spots are pretty common. The extent of how hot depends again on design of the grill.
The biscuit test is the way to find out where the hotspots are.
Buy a package of biscuits. Pillsbury is only one that comes to mind.
Spread them out over the grate and cook according to directions on the package.
That will show you where any hotspots are.
Have you looked through the treads in this section.
This would be the area where people that have these types of grills have posted.
Since I do not have that grill, so can't help you with the issues question.
Others may have other comments.
Happy smoking...