To explain what I mean, I think you can level up a cooking style. For example, pasta. At level 1, you’re boiling dried pasta and adding sauce out of a jar. At level 1, you add your own spices. Level 3, switch to fresh pasta. Level 4, make your own sauce. And finally at level 5, make the pasta from scratch.
So with BBQ, I guess level 1 would be cooking the meat so it’s neither burnt nor underdone. Maybe level 2 is mixing different meats/cuts that have different heat/time requirements and cooking well. Further levels = ?
Not a BBQ expert, but regarding point 2/3 I always cut my chicken breasts in half essentially regardless of how I cook them.
This is the way. I taught my gf this when she was wondering why her chicken wasn’t to temp after 30 minutes in the grill and mine was always done near the 20 minute mark.
It allows for a more even and quicker cooking.