I guess I have no dog in this race, being a native Californian. Anything called BBQ around here is a transplant from somewhere else. Where I live it all came out with the shipyard workers in WW2, who are/ were mostly from the mid-Atlantic states so it's all about pork ribs. Even pulled pork is a "specialty'. I never much liked the stuff until I buddied up with Airman Jim, who's from Memphis.
The native population were a bunch of vegetarian foragers. They pretty much liked to do what we do- sit, crack nuts and stare at the ocean.
The Spaniards liked their cow, and roasted. A very fine meal is Santa Maria tri-tip; about 3" thick and grilled over oak coals. You can keep your mesquite, mister. Very hard to cook with the stuff.
Not only are beans an additive to Chili, but so is meat. The basics are a hot pepper sauce, with spices, bound with some kind of fat. I usually start mine with a half pound of the cheapest bacon I can find, all chopped up. Onions, garlic, oil, and chili powder, plus other spices. Maybe meat, cubed up sirloin one of those $ 3.99 "bbq" specials at the grocery that neither are bbq nor grill very well. Beans, no. Temper the whole thing with corn meal to make it thick and gooey.
My friend Garth lives in New Mexico and brings up every kind of chili, both dried and fresh, that you could imagine.
I guess I'll paint the Rod Gelb Braun. I'm also trying to figger out how to dress up the front end- it came with this US M2 halftrack type terrain roller that the F.Marschall did NOT approve of. Maybe a chrome bumper, except my spare parts bin doesn't have any car stuff.