> costly
Cigarettes are really cheap in places that don't heavily tax them
> doesn't offer anything
Human brains like nicotine. It is mildly effective as a mood stabilizer. I think we both agree that the bad health effects are not worth it, but it's not accurate to say there's nothing on the other side of that equation.
That can seem like a nootropic (some definitions even explicitly include them) especially if you have anxiety.
The con of this is nicotine addiction.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, exercise and meditation all beat nicotine in effectiveness as anxiolytics and in strength of effect.
Not arguing for the use of nicotine, but there are reasons people like taking pills (or chewing gum, as the case may be).
To that end, non-combustible methods of nicotine might give the benefits without the addiction negatives (but still risks of e.g. pancreatic cancer)
For some of us this is massively understating the case.