I think (as is so often the case with preprocessed meat) it will often depend on who you buy it from. I often buy kosher prepared birds (which are always pre-brined salted) and I've never had any complaints. The nice thing about kosher preparation, is that it is done according to very specific rules, under strict supervision. It's not a factory process.
On the other hand, I cannot abide the brined birds from major poultry companies. Their primary goal is to increase the weight of the bird, not the flavor.
Factory prep seeks to minimize time and cost. They will use cheap ingredients (largely just water and salt, with no added herbs) and they will use whatever process takes the least time, most likely injection, which has the added benefit that they can force more liquid (and therefore weight) into the meat than would normally come from absorption. They'll likely insta-freeze it, so wait time is probably not an issue, but freezing causes its own issues.
I would say, for best results, take your time. A nice leisurely soak, real salt, and no pressure on the meat. For best results (talking turkey here) look for "Natural" or "Minimally Processed": if it says that, you shouldn't have to worry about competing additives.
Brining pork—especially a thin cut like ribs—before barbecuing (in the low and slow sense) is not traditional. To see why, you have to understand the functions (and myths) about brining:
It helps retain moisture. This is true. Water enters the meat cells during the brining process. Not all of this water will come out during the cooking process. Additionally, due to the third effect below (delaying the final coagulation of the proteins), less water will be squeezed out at early phases of cooking.
It seasons the meat. Absolutely true. Salt will penetrate into the meat, providing a depth of seasoning throughout the cut.
It helps keep the meat tender. This is sort of true for some cooking methods. The salt which enters the muscle fibers helps by (per Kenji Alt's Food Lab):
... dissolving some of the muscle proteins (mainly myosin). The muscle
fibers loosen up, allowing them to absorb more moisture, and more
importantly, they don't contract as much when they cook, making sure
that more of that moisture stays in-place as the turkey cooks.
This makes it more difficult to overcook the meat to the point the proteins seize up into tight little balls (well done meat, with its characteristic tough or rubbery texture). This also helps retain moisture since less is squeezed out.
Salt helps mitigate this shrinkage
It flavors the meat (other than the seasoning from the salt). This is a myth although many on this site will vehemently disagree with me. Okay, it is sort of kind of a little true, but only in the weakest possible sense.
Any flavors that penetrate the meat due so at a pace of about 2-3 millimeters per day, which is trivial. Flavors are big molecules, and don't cross cell walls. At the small scale, muscle tissue is essentially a big bunch of straws (the cells) with essentially no inter-cellular room for brine to penetrate. Any flavors in the brine are left at the surface for all practical purposes.
And there are some downsides of brining:
Added water weight reduces flavor. Its simple, more weight of water means less flavor, simply through dilution.
Brining changes the texture of the meat, moving it on that spectrum towards "hammy" at the extreme end, if overdone.
So how does all of this apply to low and slow barbecue?
Moisture retention. By the very nature of barbecuing, you are going to cook the food until it is meltingly tender. All of the proteins will be fully coagulated, and at their toughest anyway! The reason barbecue is not tough is the cuts of meat chosen: they are high in connective tissue and fat. The connective tissue, a protein called collagen, converts to gelatin over the long cooking period starting when the meat hits about 170 - 180 F. This, together with the generous melted fat creates the unctuous texture of barbecue.
So brining will not help here.
Seasoning the meat. It does. However, you can apply highly flavored sauces, dry rubs, or so-called dry brines which do just as good a job, without adding to the water weight of the cut. And that water weight does what water does: reduce flavor intensity by diluting it. Literally.
Brining might help season, but not better than other methods.
Keeping the meat tender. As described above, preventing the protein from being well done is not a goal in barbecue. It is the low and slow conversion of gelatin to collagen which is the hallmark of the tender barbecue.
Brining does not help.
Adding flavor.
Its just a myth. No help to barbecue or any other cooking method.
Overall, then, I would say you are better off looking at your dry rub, your sauce, and your smoke to create flavor and enhance your ribs.
A good dry rub, with salt, applied 24 hours, will serve as a dry brine, and give you all of the benefits of brining without the drawbacks, at least insofar as they apply to this method of cooking. And it is less messy and less fussy!
One thing some advanced barbecue artisans do is inject brine or seasoning into the heart of a cut of meat using what is essentially a giant syringe. Once inside the meat, the bring will begin to act normally, but from the inside: spreading seasoning over time, and flavoring at snails pace. Since ribs are thin, this technique normally does not apply to ribs. It does however, literally, get the flavor inside the meat.
Best Answer
We can quibble, but brining, by definition, is wet. When there is no liquid, you are just salting or dry rubbing (although the term is popular, and few make the distinction). It is unlikely that any oj, or anything other than salt molecules are penetrating the meat. So, the oj is just a surface treatment, as is most marination. If you like the texture of brined pork, why mess with the oj brine? I would use the oj brine, then right before grilling, use your spice rub without the salt.