there is no tea that is as dividing as lapsang. i've had a tin of some for well over a decade that i haven't attempted to brew since i took two sips immediately following its arrival in the mail. i've used it in place of liquid smoke a few times and as a rub for lamb. roasted/smoke teas gradually lose their smokiness when aged but even so, i'm not tempted to give it another shot. to each their own
the lapsang china exports is heavily smoked for western tastebuds (not to mention the good majority of it is old unsold tea) compared to the lapsang intended for the chinese market, which is either lightly smoked or not smoked at all. i'd be curious to try the unsmoked lapsang but with the existence of jin jun mei, a highly coveted tea (and one of the most expensive per ounce) that is made from the same tea bushes as real lapsang from the wuyi region, why bother? and for the lightly smoked version, i'd like to see the flavors unravel after multiple brews but finding it outside of china is rather difficult, if not, next to impossible. most lapsang is exported, leaving very little for the chinese
for fans of lapsang, you should give some roasted wuyi oolongs a try
and it's common to use lapsang in mixes, e.g. russian caravan.