I think it's about mostly about motivation and support. My husband and I were both very heavy smokers, which is extremely expensive (more than our two car payments combined), so even though most people think smokers want to quit for health reasons (and I'm sure some do), we both enjoyed smoking very much and didn't want to quit - we just couldn't afford it anymore.
So one day I called my Mom (also a smoker, but trying unsuccessfully to quit via more traditional NRTs, help groups, etc.) asking for money to buy cigarettes before payday; not like I wanted to, but I was desperate. So she told me "No" but then she came over and gave me a BluCig starter kit, saying that she tried it & didn't like it but maybe it would work for me (to hold me over until payday). I'd never even heard of vaping or e-cigs before and after my first puff, I was very interested. I gotta hand it to BluCigs - their PCC being very similar to a hard plastic box-top cigarette pack is ingenius for marketing purposes. I liked it, a lot. I was very intrigued by the experience and even though it didn't take long for me to realize that the BluCigs weren't going to work for me (draining batteries before the next was charged & hated the flavors), I was interested enough to start doing some research. Once I realized there were other options, including all kinds of yummy juices (desserts, sweets, fruit, coffee) and I could save a ton of money, I was definitely interested seeing if I could make the switch from smoking to vaping permanently. I bought several KR808's, a bunch of empty cartos (all different types, sizes & vendors) and lots of different juices in various nic levels to find what worked best. I was POSITIVE that my setup would have to look & feel like a cigarette in order for it to work for me (for the most part - I did like the different colors and a bit of bling from the V4L batteries with the crystal tips vs. ash tips). My husband was NOT interested. Well, at first he was a little bit curious but he didn't like most of the flavors (even the tobaccos), didn't want to push a button (on the manuals), didn't like the fact the you need to inhale differently when you're vaping than when you smoke, and quickly lost interest completely when he saw that I was still constantly charging batteries, not impressed with lots of the juice samples (which piled up as I bought more to try & the stuff I didn't like sat around, wasted) and fussing with refilling cartos. I kept trying for a few months & got an 808 Ego style battery or two to solve the constant charging issue but I still wasn't finding the right juice, wasn't thrilled about constantly topping off cartos (and not being able to tell if a burnt tasted was a dead carto, a need to refill or just slow wicking juice that I was chain-vaping too quickly). Clearos were brand new back then, still having a lot of problems, so I wasn't ready to try them yet. Plus, I was spending even more money rather than saving anything (temporarily) because I was still trying to find the right juice & hardware to work (while I continued to smoke almost as much as before at the same time), which was opposite the goal and I was running out of storage solutions to keep all the "stash" in, so I just gave up & went back to smoking because it was easier.
A couple of years later, again for financial reasons, I came back. Now I'm exclusively using Crystal Vision clearos and 808 Ego style batts (I was surprised to discover that looking & feeling like a cigarette doesn't matter as much as I was so sure it would after all - though I still miss that little bit of crystal bling), with several juices that I really like from a couple of now go-to vendors. This time, within a few days, my smoking dropped in half and within a week or two, I was down to an average of 5 cigarettes a day. I still smoke a few cigarettes a day but I don't care about them anymore. I can leave the house without them & not feel anxious about it. I'm honestly not even sure why I still smoke a few a day except that even at 12mg nic, the throat hit on my PV is still a lot harsher than a full flavor cigarette for some reason (I may need to go to 100% VG), so usually the first smoke or maybe two of the morning is a cigarette because starting the day with my PV is still a bit too much to handle. I'm working on that though, trying to go to the PV first with itty bitty "hits" until my throat's warmed up & ready.
Anyway, the point is that my husband is simply not motivated to make the switch to vaping even though he's watched the process I went through and sees it working for me. His perspective is that he tried it & didn't like it. Occasionally, I'll get him to take one hit from a new flavor (today it was Bananas Foster from Velvet Vapors & he said "mmm... that's good") but that's it. He won't take another. He's happy for me & doesn't give me any heck about buying vape stuff anymore since I'm hardly smoking (so we're saving money now). It's just not something that he's motivated to do himself. He says he'll quit smoking cold turkey when I completely stop smoking at all. We'll see
The other point is that I think a lot of us have to start out with mini kits that look like cigarettes because we think that's what we want, at first. It takes awhile before many of us realize that we don't need for it to look or feel like a cigarette to work and in fact, the ones that look less like cigarettes work better. If mom had brought me a Provari/tank set up to begin with, I probably would have been too scared of it to even give it a shot and I never would have started on the journey that got me here. The other huge factor in getting me to most past the mini's was ECF. This forum opened up the wonderful world of vaping possibilities to me and gave me a huge source of learning; from information of all sorts (what's out there, what ohms and volts mean, reviews, etc.) to much needed community & support. I live in a tiny town in nowhere, WI and honestly think I'm the only vaper here
BluCigs got me started with their simplicity and design, being close to what I was used to and uncomplicated. ECF kept me on the journey long enough to find my sweet spot. Now that I have about 10 juices and batts/clearos that I love, it's not that complicated and I don't need a lot of space to store stuff anymore because I don't need to keep searching anymore. So I think starting with mini's is probably not such a bad way for a smoker to get started, it's whether or not they can find the right resources & support (refer them to ECF!) and then stay motivated enough to go through that learning process long enough to settle in comfortably.
Just MHO.
