I'm no Biblical scholar (and am not now nor have ever been associated w/ a conspiracy--ignorant or otherwise) but I think Holy Scripture presents God as a perfect being.
Just for fun let's look at Milton's answer to your question, ie, why bother w/ creation if He were indeed complete.
In Paradise Lost JM posits that w/ the fall of Satan, God created man to redeem perfection. When man was tricked by Satan, Jesus Christ was sent to earth to redeem man (sorry, a bad synopsis). In the fullness of time JC will return and Paradise (along w/ us) will be regained.
IOW Creation is the process God works through to maintain perfection. Not entirely different from your smoke rings but w/ a point. Obviously the point is probably far from the mark, but I think worthy of consideration. (Milton's point-not mine).
Chickens are how eggs make other eggs.
God is the egg and reality is the chicken, this is a bit better than the smoke ring analogy, but what I'm implying with both is that God is 'inside out' right now, IN or UNDER reality not OUTSIDE it.
Its like when your genes build your body and brain, they get all the benefits of evolution to tell them HOW to build it, but once it is ALIVE and LIVING and CONCIOUS its basically hands off from the genetic level, like a programmer is hands off with his chess program once it is running.
So reality is God either cloning or transmuting Himself.