I enjoy, for lack of a better term, dosage control. When I smoked, I would light up and even if I only felt like a drag or two, there would still be an entire cigarette/cigar to smoke. Sure, you could put it out, but everyone here that smoked knows how vile that really is when you relight it anyway. I can vape as much or as little as I want, at lower or higher wattage, whichever flavor at whatever nicotine concentration I feel is appropriate. It's cheaper by a long shot (cigarettes in Canada are outrageously expensive!) and nowhere near as harmful physically (vapor molecules are much larger than smoke particulates and cannot be inhaled as deeply into the lung structure) and chemically (the known effects of tar and carbon monoxide, aside the thousands of other by products of combustion far outweigh the potential risks of pg/VG chronic inhalation).
The hobby aspect is perhaps the Achilles heel of vaping, as most users are, by their very natures, addictive personalities. I think it's a question of finding a rig that works for you first and foremost.