Poutine is a comfort food and also a "simple" dish. I'd say that you can put anything on fries and it'll taste good. I've never had a poutine that tastes bad. But I have tried some that are better than others. Smoke's Poutine is the best poutine I've had simply because they are the only ones that offer a wide range of toppings on your poutine. That and they don't put too much salt. I don't really understand what "real cheese curds" are. To me, cheese is just cheese. As long as it's a solid chunk of cheese, I'm happy. I guess "real" is to distinguish it from those shredded cheese shards? I don't know what fake cheese is.
Smoke's poutine is more expensive than other places but that's understandable since they are a franchise with significant marketing. A large poutine with "stuff" comes out to be about $12.50 included taxes. But on the bright side, it's pretty massive and can feed 2 people.
My suggestion is that if you just want plain poutine (cheese + gravy on fries), go to any other place that's not also a burger place. That food truck outside of new city hall comes to mind. I don't recommend places like burger king because they tend to salt the fries too much. But if you want a gourmet poutine, Smoke's is the place to go.
I'd recommend Smoke's Poutine solely because poutine is a national food. If a foreign friend asks me for Canadian food, I'm going to point them to Smoke's Poutine. However, I'll be responsible and caution that it's really unhealthy and explain that it's just fries + cheese + gravy. It'll taste good no matter where you get it.