It depends what your burning, what your heating, how much control you have on the fire......
Your villager sounded wrong until I read what you was burning, I can shut the draught on chimney, on the flue and on the fire itself, it burns as hot/fast or slow/cool as I want, ideal for me heating a large farmhouse as its central in the house and heats a lot of the rooms, happily burn overnight when shut down, takes half metre logs, less work prepping the wood, perfect for me, each scenario is different though