is it for glazing or for dipping/smothering?

Strictly as a condiment. It has no place at the smoker or the grill. If I do it right, the meat needs no sauce. On a sandwich, the sauce is for the dry bun.

I like bbq sauce. Sure good bbq doesn't need any bbq sauce, but I think a good bbq is well complimented by a good bbq sauce.

I do like to put a little sweet sauce with some sugar on my ribs before I take them off. I don't know any other way to get a good glaze on them, if you put enough brown sugar to do it they are ungodly sweet.

Different strokes for different folks there isn't one right or wrong answer.

Strictly as a condiment. It has no place at the smoker or the grill. If I do it right, the meat needs no sauce. On a sandwich, the sauce is for the dry bun.

it's a personal preference to me ... I don't use sauce but my wife likes a sweet touch even on the finest smoked meat ( ) ... kinda like my MIL likes her steaks well done (which to me is ruining a good piece of meat) ...

I was raised using an old family German recipe for a mop sauce on whatever we had on the pit but it was basically to keep the meat moist and flys off (very large open pits) that consisted of apple cider vinegar, oil, black pepper, salt, fresh squeezed lemons & oranges (then drop the rinds in the pot) that was mixed up in a large pot and set on the pit along side the meat with a made up mop. Towards the end of the cooking process, a little of the mop sauce was pulled off into a separate smaller pot, tomato sauce/paste was added with a little brown sugar or honey for those that had to have a dipping sauce.

if the meat is dry or bland, it sometimes might need some sauce even for me ... but I normally use any type of sauce to dip my bread in, not the meat.

use it to cover up mistakes or bad meat

Or maybe some people just like the taste of the meat with a little sauce with it

Exactly.

Purely for glazing ribs and chicken.

I use mine while cooking as a glaze....mostly on pork or chicken.....rarely use it for dipping or smothering.....unless the meat is bland and needs something to make it more eatable.....

How do you use it?