My pit arrived, and I got it set up and did the initial burn in. My initial thought when I opened the package was man is she pretty. As I feared, she is prettier from a distance. This was one of my worries, but one I was willing to live with. The workmanship looks shoddy in places up close. It won't affect the cooking of the pit, it's just that it is less pretty up close. Most of the areas that aren't pretty are inside. On the outside, for the most part it looks like a good pit, but you can tell corners were cut.
Things I didn't expect that aren't great about it is that things like the auger motor and some of the wiring aren't enclosed. Which means if this is left out in the rain, water will pour down directly on these things. This is something that I can fix, so while it is a negative, it's not a deal breaker. Overall, I think I'm going to be very happy with this unit. The ash cleanout is spectacular. open a door, pull out the burn pot and dump it. Vacuum out the ashes in the box, slide the burn pot back in, close the door.
I love the side shelves, although they actually get a bit warm as they are mounted directly to the cook box. It seems like it's pretty stingy with the pellets, so that will be nice. I won't know how stingy until I do a full cook. I just did an hour at 400 and there was barely any movement in the pellet feed.