personally i'd say UQ the whole way. I even stayed at shelters a lot because they usually had a privy and a good water source, as mentioned above. Plus my buddies, especially near the end, enjoyed the ease of the shelter life.

That said, I always found a spot right near the shelter to hang my stuff. We'd get to a shelter, I'd go off and find my spot, set up real quick (you'll get quite fast at this after awhile), change into camp clothes, and walk over to the shelter to do the whole chat/grab water/cook/eat routine and have some laughs.

As Spiguvyer mentioned, you're sorta kinda required to stay in shelters buttttttt I only did that twice. Sometimes we'd just hang around till they filled up, or keep going. The two times i stayed were due to horrendous rain and i didn't feel like trying to set up in that kind of weather.

What I did was have my old neoair (i can't stand foam pads...like sleeping on warm dirt) shipped to me at the Fontana village and I grabbed it there (its right before the smokies, very close to the trail) and carried it through the smokies, then got ride of it.

twice i had to go to ground without pads, and, you know, its not comfortable, but it was necessary. Like in the Whites, if you stay in a hut....I just laid my ground sheet, pack, hammock, under quilt, and butt pad down then laid on that and used my top quilt. Not a great night of sleep but better than nothing. Woke up early the next morning, watched the sun rise, then got fed an ENORMOUS breakfast by the hut croo.

you can always start with a light foam pad and a UQ and see how you like it. Or go out this fall or early spring and get some weekend trips under your belt using the pad and UQ and see what you think about each.