I thought that from the beginning, and suggested to my smoking BIL that he shift to E-cigs. He largely has.
But then there was a problem with vaping additives (vitamin E oil I believe) causing a serious chemical pneumonia in some vapers. So, it's good to check the safety of the entire product, and not make assumptions.
But, yeah, they should be promoting the heck out of E-cigs, advertising that nicotine is cool, but cigarettes aren't.
I think Altria was thinking that way when they made a big investment in Juul. But then the government noticed that something like half of the high school students were vaping, and that Juul was really promoting to that group. Juul got scared stiff, but huge cautions on everything, and toned down their advertising so much that you hardly hear of them.
Don't the States have an interest here? Didn't they get something like a half-trillion dollars in long-term bonds and subsidies in the tobacco settlement? The tobacco companies should have realized that honest politicians--those who stay bought--are rare, and that they had only bought a temporary peace.
They determined the culprit was Vitamin E acetate that some manufactures used as an emulsifier. The situation has been resolved.