"
Americans tend to value abstinence above all else, an all-or-nothing approach that British advocates see as rooted in the United States’ Puritan culture, said Deborah Arnott, the chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health."
This is true.
You can see the same thing during the (alcohol) prohibition era: because ethyl alcohol is necessary for other uses, it was mandated to be "denatured" by adding chemicals that made it less appealing to drink. When they found people still drinking it (or managing to separate the alcohol from the denaturants), they increased the toxicity of the chemicals until they were actually poisoning people.
In this case, the primary goal is to prevent new smokers. Since many of the e-cigarette flavors are pleasant, they regard it as attractive to children. Now, getting someone who doesn't already smoke to vape is bad, but I haven't seen any significant evidence that vaping leads them to smoking, so there's that.
On the other hand, if you are already smoking, your soul is lost and, to a first approximation, it would be better if you were to die as soon as possible---outside of pharmaceutical companies, there is no serious interest in cessation. Inside those companies, making nicotine gum and patches is big business, and I know people who have been chewing the gum frequently for nearly a decade.
There is a certain amount of the same feeling in those who have quit smoking. To paraphrase an old joke, how do you know someone quit smoking? Don't worry, they'll tell you. If you can quit cold-turkey, good; if you can't, you are weak willed and a lesser human.
In any case, the bottom line is, like in all Puritan situations, that results matter less than perceptions.