I think they have more features today just because of technology progressing. The Wally World and big box store mentality also lead to a lot of designs I think. As they will tell a company I want a grill that does A,B, and C but I need a price point around $XXX. I have never seen a Yoder, Mak, Cookshack or any of the other US built units so I don't know how well they are built. I know I am still impressed with my little 18year old Cookshack Smokette every time i use it. Never had an issue other than the plating on the original cooking racks had worn away. But then there really is no moving parts just a thermostat and burner.
I looked at a Pit Boss not sure what model it was one day at lowes, I was impressed that it seemed to be built as heavy or close to what my rec tec was from 7 years ago. I know the materials may not be on the same level quality wise and their controller seem iffy at best. It does seem that one could buy a cheap unit and upgrade a few things and have something that would work well for not a lot of coin, compared to the US built units. I have been looking for one of the weber units to have a look at as I really think I would like one of them from seeing a few people on youtube using them, and the versatility of the cooker.
I started with a rec tec, then bought a gmg DC and then a pit boss vertical CH7 sold off the rec tec as it didn't get used any more. I was not as impressed as other with the rec tec or even the pit boss. I love the little gmg though, even though I had issues right out of the box. The rec tec folks are marketing masters, they took what should be a $600ish cooker and sell it for $1200 because that is the mid line between entry level $500 ones and US built $1600+ units. I think most peoples thoughts when looking for a pellet cooker are I don't want to drop $1600 and I am not sure about the quality of the $500 unit so they look for that middle ground and rec tec went for it and said if we sell it at $1000 to $1200 we have $350 in it, we can offer a long warranty and ship replacement parts out to the people and still be putting money on our pockets. That shows the support of their product. GMG folks were great at getting me fixed up and I never needed CS for pit boss but i read where some have great results and other not so great.
I know I have a list of cookers in my mind I would like to try if I had the funds to do it, I have always thought I needed an FEC 100 or 120, and i remember back in the PH days reading about a company in MD I believe, Dream Werks I think was the name, and I really thought I should have one of them but way out of my budget. Reality is I usually only cook for 2 of us, and on occasion maybe 10 to 15 people so what I have is more than sufficient.
Not really sure there is much more than can be done from a technology point, PID and WIFI, what could be the next big thing. So the only things that I could see changing in the future is the quality of the cookers build. With that there is a cooker to fit almost everyone's price point from the $200 Masterbuilts that Sams was selling to the $7000 Twin Eagles.