If you're a rodent, then maybe the "of course" part might be accurate still after all.Do believe at best it is called nicotine dependence. That of course, isn't too far a cry from saying nicotine addiction.
Similarly, about the addictiveness part, claims with no real evidence are claims with no real evidence, and, no, a dependency is not the same as an addiction. The clivebates.com article I linked to earlier does talk about nicotine addictiveness, and, another part of this same article talks about the vagueries of what does and what doesn't qualify as an addiction, but a truth isn't a truth until it has been proven to be that. Like it or not, science isn't about white or black. Rather, it is about that which is unknown or not fully understood, and to get a handle on whether our conclusions are still correct.You depend on the nicotine to help avoid withdraw symptoms, you're nicotine dependent. Depend on nicotine for any reason, nicotine dependent.
Spades are spades. Facts are facts. Truths are truths, like 'em or not.
I was staying in hospital a few months ago, and, for 3 days in a row I couldn't vape because I was in Intensive Care. I was asked if I needed a nicotine patch, which I promptly declined. I didn't experience any real cravings that I could attribute to my being nicotine abstinent for that long a period of time. Not being permitted to eat whenever I was feeling very hungry was multiple times worse, but still no comparison to the cravings that I had experienced 15 years ago, when I tried to quit smoking by taking the cold-turkey style of approach and failed soon after because cravings were that horrible. Again, I can't speak for others' personal experiences. But, IMO anyway, horrible cravings vs no real cravings does illustrate the difference between addiction and some mild dependency. The latter dependency might also be enough to relapse back to smoking normal cigarettes one day, during an unexpected moment of weakness or stress. I consider the consequence of this potential risk to be much more severe than the harm caused by my continuing to vape nicotine at less than 3mg. Vaping calms me down and helps me to stay focused, and, I also know that stress is unhealthy for me. I am HSP so my reaction to various stress factors tends to be often more intense compared to the average person's.