"Nicotine is just caffeine" is too clean given the tumor-promotion evidence. To a large extent, it comes down to the method of delivery: patches are difficult to get hooked on because they do not cause a rapid spike in nicotine levels and are not associated with any ritual; cigarettes are hard to give up due to that spike, the accompanying ritual, and the MAO inhibitors found in the smoke; while vapes occupy a middle ground—which is precisely why they help some people quit smoking but foster addiction in others.

yeah it's annoying when people overstate the efficacy of patches. if patches worked as well as cigs, everyone would just buy patches instead (huge market here..don't steal my idea).