Would something like Grill Grates make the difference? People say they're amazing, and they prevent flame contact anyway, so if you crank the heat up on one of those and your grill grates become a searing/char surface just from temp, wouldn't that be fine?

I've wondered about this and I'm selling my smoker and grill and getting a pellet smoker plus the grill grates, hoping it will be just fine.

I mean, flat top burgers get all the rave too and they're not direct flame.