I mean, you could say the same thing about coffee.

Probably. As I said, I've always hated coffee so I've never really had any desire to consume large quantities of it, so I can't speak to that.

I will say, though, energy drinks do become a relatively expensive addiction. A Monster energy drink can easily cost 3-4 dollars, so if I had three of those a day we are talking $10+ of cost. If you get off brands they're cheaper, but even still I think they're overpriced.

I know it's a meme that people pay like $6 for a coffee at Starbucks, but I think if you buy the coffee beans yourself or instant coffee it's relatively cheap.

Drip coffee has ~40-50% more caffeine per 8oz serving than Red Bull (about 90-100mg vs 65mg). The nice thing about coffee is that the mouth-puckering tannins make it harder to absolutely pound them, like one can do easily with cans of Red Bull.

As a coffee drinker the "bizarrely addictive" comment does not resonate with me at all.

I don't really have trouble keeping myself to, like, 1.2 coffees a day. I can't imagine drinking 6-7 coffees in a day to get to 800 mg caffeine.

Unless you add ice or sweetener it's bitter and hot, so it's a lot harder to slide down the slippery slope of just drinking it whenever you're thirsty and simultaneously getting addicted to the caffeine and the sugar. To say nothing of whatever else is in the energy drinks.

Although I guess plenty of people who drive a lot do this with the sugary Starbucks drinks in the giant mugs.

You could but you'd be quite disingenuous if you did considering that coffee delivers caffeine without a bunch of added sugar.