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 = ?
At least for me the progression was like this:
L1 - Sausage on grill
L2 - Meats on grill an getting the heat an timing right
L3 - Rubs and brines and grilled veggies
L4 - Baking bread and pizza
L5 - Serving a complete family dinner with different cuts of meat, fish, veggies and bread from one grill
L0: acting like “grilling” is barbecue.
No one cares.