People here are so darn helpful! You can get a lot of opinions. I would just go back to the basics, no foil, you've got the good smokinlicious wood, and get some smokes under your belt. I think you maybe overanalyzed the smoke appearance in the beginning during the seasoning process, which set you off on NUMEROUS paths prematurely. Lots of people look too closely at smoke and box temp during seasoning.
Tweak things from the basics. SI smokers really are so easy. You can get wrapped up in details, but it really is not necessary with these smokers to get GREAT results. If you come from a background of traditional smoking, you are used to analyzing these details. Just let it happen with the SI. It will do it's job.