Having never owned a KJ, I can't do a direct comparison. But, I can tell you that it's super easy to use the basket splitter to do 2 zone cooking, especially reverse searing. You can do either hot side/warm side, or high/low vertical zones. Put the sear grate on top of the basket and then use either the lower or main grate as the lower heat zone. Then remove that grate and use the sear grate for your reverse sear.