Etch time is determined by how deep you want it, on this the pattern was etched for longer than the image,
The dumb & dirty pwm vs the smart pwm, I really can't comment as I've never used the spwm.
Though as the name suggests it's dumb & dirty it does what you want it to and that's vapourize eliquid and allows you to control the output when wired to 2,3 or 4 cells in series.