I've done the oven / grill ribs and they are excellent.
I've only been smoking meat for two years. It really isn't that expensive or time consuming. Actually, the premise of it is taking bad / tough cuts of meat and making them palatable. I'll give you two hints I've learned should you try smoking BBQ. I bought my smoker for about $200 and I am usually smoking meat that costs $1-2 per pound. And it really doesn't take a lot of "time." While my pulled pork usually takes 14-18 hours to cook, I probably spend about 1/2 hour actually doing anything. About the only PITA is getting up at like 3AM to add woodchips.
Black pepper gets really strong in a smoker. I tried the rib rub for the oven / grill ribs (which really tasted good) on ribs I smoked and the black pepper was overpowering. It was all you could taste.
I smear plain yellow mustard on the meat before I put the rub on. It is a good smoking spice that you won't taste in the finished dish and it helps the rub stick to the meat.