Lost $180 on a pellet smoker controller I never needed

Last spring I bought a fancy aftermarket controller for my pellet grill because the temp swings were driving me crazy. Figured the stock board was junk and spent 180 bucks on a PID upgrade with all the bells and whistles. Installed it in about an hour, fired it up, and the temps were still bouncing around 25 degrees. Turns out the real problem was my cheapo probe had come loose and was sitting too close to the firebox. I tightened the bracket, put my original controller back in, and it held steady at 225 for a whole brisket cook. Now I got this expensive controller sitting in a drawer doing nothing. Anyone else chased a fancy fix before checking the simple stuff first?