I know not exactly what guided Joseph Smiths hand, it may have been the Devil himself or could be as simple as that which drove PT Barnum to pursue his circus, a sucker is born every minute.
What I do know is what ever guided him did not come from above. God doesn't talk in circles, make hard right and left turns in his actions, ask us to lie, intentionally complicate salvation or waste his efforts on our behalf. Most of all he does not hide from his people only to randomly reappear in New York forest.
So if it is not from bellow or from the mind of man, there are precious few choices left...
Why not? Why is the New York forest any less likely a place that the Middle Eastern desert?
Why would God speak through prophets only in times past? If He did indeed speak through prophets in biblical times — and I believe He did — why would he stop forever?
These are rhetorical questions. I ask them only to point out that there is nothing any more or less rational about our religion than any other religion.