Moderated or not, I favor a rec group if feasible to an alt group for reasons already raised.
Alt distribution is terrible.
In sampling various news servers, I've found my home server is receiving only about one in four of the posts which I can find on other servers. This is a true distribution problem, not a time delay. Those actually interested in fine tobacco would poke in to see what's happening. Hopefully, the flamers might be less inclined to do so than with a .tobacco or .smoking. In offering this I am not saying the scope of discussion should be constrained.