Back when my parents lived in Lockhart and I got to eat at those places more times than I could ever possibly recall, LCM was always the best of the best when they were "on". There was a hierarchy for me that went something like this amongst the Lockhart places + LCM:
Smitty's - they were always the winner for me, not because they ever put out the absolute best BBQ, but because they were always the most consistently very good. If they put out their absolute best food, it was always a tick below Kruez or LCM.
Kruez - not as consistent as Smitty's, but their best effort, to me, was a bit better than SMitty's. the issue was their best effort seemed to have a hit rate of about 1 out of 4 times. That said their worst food was never that bad.
LCM - If they put out their very best, they were the very best and it didn't matter which protein. Brisket, Ribs, sausage, their best was the pinnacle of BBQ at that time. However, they were wildly inconsistent, and their worst food was by far the worst of the lot. Just inedible at times. I could never figure out how they could vary so wildly from visit to visit. This would really piss me off when I would forgo Smitty's 3 minutes from my parent's place to drive 20 minutes away, wait in line, drive back home, and get them on a day they were "off".
Blacks - they were just consistently average back then. I think they have elevated themselves a bit since then, but they were never the leader there.
The period I am referencing was the 10 years from 2005-2015.