That's a delicious looking meal! I have yet to do much with sides in my #1 (meat-centric when it comes to smoking), but that red pepper is inspiring me.
What has been discovered over time experimenting with using pink salt (Prague Powder #1) or Morton TenderQuick for creating the faux smoke ring, is that it only needs to be on the meat for about 30 minutes (or no more than an hour on whole packer brisket), and then should be rinsed off. This should also be done just prior to smoking. If you apply the cure, then rinse, and then refrigerate overnight, the cure remaining in the meat continues to make it's way toward the center, and will give you that wide band, even though you rinsed it. It can also change the flavor of the meat, to taste like pastrami as you mentioned. I have gravitated toward using Morton TenderQuick for the faux smoke ring. The cure in it is a lot less potent, and gives me more control. I can give the meat a good thorough dusting, then rinse 30 or so minutes later, without worrying about using too much nitrite/nitrate. The problem with applying cure for the faux smoke ring, is that it doesn't allow you to apply your rub in advance and refrigerate (unless you don't mind rinsing it off, and reapplying after the cure). You need to TenderQuick, rinse, rub, then directly into the smoker, so the cure doesn't have too much time on the meat. That's the trade-off I guess for the faux smoke ring, but I've not found any problem with applying the rub right before smoking. Sometimes with brisket, I will salt/pepper the night before to add flavor, even though it gets rinsed off shortly before smoking in order to add the cure.
160 also seems like a pretty high internal temp for a ribeye, unless you like it well-done. I like medium rare, and 125-130 internal temp would be medium-rare territory. If you want to sear your steak after you smoke it, remove it from the smoker around 115-120, then sear, for medium rare. I also go 200-225 on the dial when cooking medium rare, just to bring the meat up to temp more gradually, since my target internal temp is lower.