The other benefit, as I read on here recently, is it makes the gas line much more flexible. I find 3/8 a pain to route/move where I want it, so will be changing my gas lines to 3/16 simply for this reason alone.You can run the gas in 3/16" all the way if you want. That's what I do. 3/8 to 3/16 stem reducers at each end and job done.