In what alternate universe did you experience NC BBQ? Non-descript? There is a very specific definition: pork, roasted directly over open coals. Bucket of brown liquid? Proper NC BBQ is picked directly off the roasting pig. What you're saying is akin to saying Texas BBQ is non-descript meat boiled in a pot of ketchup on the stove.
A couple of years back I spent two months in Wilmington, NC helping to build a couple of power stations. I was treated to "the best BBQ in the state" by my clients and it was just as I described. Yes, it was pulled pork, but it was literally soaking in the brown liquid as were some ribs. Just awful. A few weeks later, I went to a different, trendier place hoping for better but ended up with the same fare. Perhaps in the western part of the state they do it differently, but I was assured at both places that this was "authentic NC BBQ".
S.C. is also mostly pulled pork, but slow roasted with a mustard based sauce that's very nice.
None of it compares to Texas BBQ which DOES NOT require any sauce, but it can be used provided it is not too sweet like that KC mess and has some kick. I had a BBQ pit made it Houston and shipped to CA because one couldn't find a good offset smoker in CA years ago. Now one can get BBQ in CA, but it mostly is the sweet KC style which I'm not fond of.
