I actually like the peppery bite, but my main flavor is mostly-menthol with some cinnamon and just a tiny note of milk chocolate to smooth it out a bit. I'm all about the flavor biting me. I'm a bit disappointed since falling to 1 mg/ml nicotine as the bite is really pretty much gone from the nicotine.
In addition to using higher VG, some flavoring also influence pepper. Sweet tends to smooth it out, the softer mints (like spearmint) will cover it over and mute it. Sharp flavors like peppermint or menthol enhance the bite, and the pepper also helps set off the mint/menthol flavor as well. Heavy pepper will interact badly with bakery flavors, I've found...but some people actually like that.
Really, a lot of flavors interact with each other...that's a lot of the fun (and complexity) of DIY.
When designing a flavor, realize that the pepper may be there (depending on the nic you choose; Wizard Labs' seems very smooth, My Freedom Smokes has a bit of a bite). And work with it, integrating it as a flavor note in your mix.
(Also design flavors in small amounts at first as sometimes the mix sounded great in your head, but...)