I know we all like our fancy smokers in here, but it's important to remember that many BBQ competitions have been won, and are still being won on WSM's. I'd wager that it is still the most widely used model in the US on BBQ circuits.
That's what's awesome about smoking in general. You can produce the same or better quality with a $500 WSM as you can with a $10k offset. My guess is that the majority of people started with something even cheaper. I smoked with a weber kettle grill, then a $200 Masterbuilt Electric smoker, then a Masterbuilt gravity 560, and now this LSG. Other people buy offsets, pellets, gas, kettle, cabinet, Kamado, etc. They all have their own use case, advantages/disadvantages, etc. I still use the Weber when I want something quick and easy.