The tar and burning sensation were probably just as important as nicotine in building an addiction. This is why nicotine gum doesn’t do it for many people, and why vaping is more effective for smoking cessation (the steam effect brings back some of the burning tar feel, while you have something to hold...).
Yeah, I'm sure that's a good part of it. There was still a sense of cigarettes "giving a little more" - hard to describe as I really couldn't say what, the couple of times I had a smoke after starting vaping in earnest.
Vaping didn’t work for me when I tried quitting the first time, but that was the early days. I eventually just went cold turkey, but that took a lot of longer than I would have liked.
