While it's true that many traditions did advise this kind of thing, that usually would have been in the context of cultivating some kind of overall spiritual path. It's not something that would just be recommended to everyone in a blanket way. It seems to me the people in their forums who talk about struggling not to masturbate at all may be doing themselves more harm than good (at least, they could apply their energy to something other than trying to subdue a basic biological function). I think a lot of people persuaded by the message of this site are just indulging some aspect of their psychology that gives them a tendency toward self-denial, while buying into the notion that it's for some higher purpose.
It's important to distinguish between a habit and an addiction. It would be a difficult adjustment for me to live for two weeks without electricity, but I wouldn't consider myself to have an electricity "addiction". To qualify as an addiction, a habit would have to have additional characteristics: for example, escalating momentum, interfering with other life activities, being used as an escape from problems that were created by the addiction in the first place, and so on.
There's a tendency to use the most extreme examples as anecdotal evidence. Some people can have a glass of wine with dinner and it's not an issue, and some people (alcoholics) may ruin their lives in a matter of days after the first drink. But that's not a particularly strong argument for saying that no one should ever drink, just because some people may become alcoholics. You just have to carefully observe your own life and figure out how to make use of your energy in an appropriate way. Anyone who has a blanket prescription for everyone is peddling dogma.