Yeah, when I was a smoker (thankfully many years in the past now), I really only ever used bics. I went through phases with Zippos or butane lighters, but they were always maintenance heavy, unreliable and too expensive for something so comonly shared with others. On the flip side, no-name gas station lighters didn't last and were generally unreliable. Bics hit a huge sweet spot of being long lasting, reliable, _and_ cheap enough to be treated as disposable even though they weren't in practice.

Those cheap transparent ones in your second picture are infamously unreliable. I swear I’ve had ones that quit after a dozen strikes.

Back when I smoked, yes, Bic was the one true path. The "cheap plastic" second one you mentioned were the dollar-store lighters, they generally fell apart pretty quickly. Zippos were neat but too much of a pain in the ass to keep refilling and remembering when you last refilled. But the fat Bics were indestructible and lasted forever.