Thuc,
I don't necesarily disfavor the cig look-a-like. I out-grew it. Like most, I felt at first that I wanted my PV to look like an analog so I wouldn't be noticed by others with a PV (that comes down to comfort level or confidence, but at the root it is shame, unfounded mind you but it is a natural part of the process of converting to PVs).
Once I understood the practical limitations of a look-a-like, and more importantly the value of ecigs (I quit analogs in 2 days after a 31 year 1.5 PAD habit using kr808s), it very easily "got me over" the fact that the PV models available that performed the way I wanted them to, did not look like analogs.
That being said, it also opened up a new world of artistic craftsmanship, astetics and quality in PVs/tanks/drip tips etc, similar (and superior) to what you describe in analogs. Why do I say that? What you are describing is pleasurable memories in nostalgia. The reason US cigaettes were preferred is due to the superior quality of tobaco and paper quality, uniform leave cut and taste etc, which is WHY people associated the US smokes as a thing of beauty. We learn to see "beauty" no matter what it looks like, when it is associated to a superiorily crafted thing.
When it comes down to looks alone, a cig is a cig with some very slight differences between look and filter color, number of printed bands etc. It's a piece of paper rolled into a tube, a thing of beauty? I think what you are associating a cig's beauty to is actually associated to "what the American cig meant" to people, not because of it's looks, but what it stood for.
To the point, most people who dis-favor look-a-likes do so initially not because of looks, but functionality. But it is common to end up dis-favoring them BECAUSE they look like cigs. WHY? Because of the years of failed attempts at quitting using them, the stress, self disappointment, the effect on others and self image (stench, yellow/brown teeth and fingers, poor health); because once we have the freedom from the prison that we have desired for so long, we don't want our PVs to even remotely remind us of that prison, nor do we want other people to mistakenly associate us with/as prisoners (smokers).
It's an interesting journey transitioning from being a smoker to being a vaper. We start out wanting and needing them to look like an anlaog that is accepted as "normal" (even though there is nothing good about a cig other than it feeds an addiction), and on to wanting it to look like anything BUT that.
Hi, i'm eHuman and I don't want my PV to look like an analog (even though I used to think I did). I like my ZMax, it's a sexy thing of craftsmanship and beauty in both form and function, like many other available MODS. Guess i'm out of the closet and proud of it.
That being said, look-a-likes play a very important psychological role in assisting people to quit smoking. Literally, they save lives.
