You're exactly right that BBQ is popular and that's why BBQ is getting worse. I know I sound like a salty hipster but bear with me for a moment. There's some "show me the incentives I'll show you the outcome" reasoning behind my opinion.
When a thing becomes trendy among moneyed demographics there is now stupid money to be made selling a caricature of that thing to people with too much money. BBQ is one of those thigns becoming just another experience for yuppies to talk about in the break room on Mondays. When you're running a BBQ joint you're not selling meat cooked in a particular style, you're selling an experience. People don't care about whether your BBQ is a career long refinement of what grandma made. They care about whether it's something they can brag about. They're looking for an experience and if you want to stay in business you're gonna sell it to them. It's not about doing your thing well, it's about presentation and show. Many of the people running these restaurants hate bastardizing their craft and leaning into an image/stereotype like this but it's what pays the bills.
Maybe I'm just jaded from growing up in a tourism economy but money uncritically thrown at something tends to ruin it.
When I go looking for a restaurant I go for <censored>, <censored> and <censored>, because those three genres aren't trendy right now and any business specializing in them has to succeed on its own merits, it can't just print money by looking the part.
Fortunately, BBQ in particular is one of those cuisines that with close attention to detail and some hours spent researching on the Net, you as an individual can turn out a brisket that, if not as good as say Snow's or Franklin, is more than Good Enough for an extremely satisfying experience when done with some friends and family as a group effort. One of the glories of our current age is this outcome can be reproduced with many if not all other cuisines and dishes.
No less a pit master than Aaron Franklin will tell anyone who cares to listen that they individually can absolutely turn out a brisket that is equal to or better than what he serves up at his eponymous restaurant. He takes pains to point out it only takes caring attention to detail to that single brisket, which is why I think I run into a greater proportion of BBQ enthusiasts in hacker circles compared to my other communities when categorized by interests. He freely admits his and other pit masters' "secret sauce" lays in how they scale it up and keeps it close to what they produce when they are making only one brisket at home for family and friends.
I generally consider BBQ competitions overblown affairs that are arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. To me, after a certain point it is quite good enough, and any further optimization for "better" doesn't pass my personal cost-benefit filter, and I'd rather spend the cognitive effort on my dining companions.
It is either that, or I possess a philistine palate. The latter is quite possible because I hold a similar opinion of many of the fine dining establishments I've eaten at, from quite fine kaiseki, omakase, Chinese, Michelin-starred French, various fusions, steak, and other restaurants, some with pretty eye-popping per-diner prices. That's mostly because I believe that we're at the nascent, fragile stages of achieving post-scarcity (by no means assured, and still many generations away), and part of that journey involves the elevation of increasingly finer experiences (perhaps some requiring ever-greater cognitive effort to appreciate that I'm not aware of) to a mass market.
When a thing becomes trendy among moneyed demographics there is now stupid money to be made selling a caricature of that thing to people with too much money. BBQ is one of those thigns becoming just another experience for yuppies to talk about in the break room on Mondays. When you're running a BBQ joint you're not selling meat cooked in a particular style, you're selling an experience. People don't care about whether your BBQ is a career long refinement of what grandma made. They care about whether it's something they can brag about. They're looking for an experience and if you want to stay in business you're gonna sell it to them. It's not about doing your thing well, it's about presentation and show. Many of the people running these restaurants hate bastardizing their craft and leaning into an image/stereotype like this but it's what pays the bills.
Maybe I'm just jaded from growing up in a tourism economy but money uncritically thrown at something tends to ruin it.
When I go looking for a restaurant I go for <censored>, <censored> and <censored>, because those three genres aren't trendy right now and any business specializing in them has to succeed on its own merits, it can't just print money by looking the part.