Good point. There must be loads of people hooked on nicotine chewing gum. I gave up smoking (25 years ago) by chewing nicotine chewing gum. It stopped me smoking but did nothing to end my physical addiction to nicotine. I chewed the stuff for over two years before one day deciding to quit and change to ordinary chewing gum. Since I was rather secretive about my addiction to nicotine chewing gum, it did mean that I went through the physical withdrawal from nicotine without anyone around me knowing why I was so tense and tetchy. It only lasted a week or so, though, and at least I never smoked again. The balance must be overwhelmingly in favour of it having been of great benefit to me to give up smoking.
One factor with chewing gum - both the nicotine sort and the ordinary sugar-free sort: they play merry hell with any fillings you've got. I had a phase of chewing gum (to try to control my sweet tooth and my food intake) and a year later needed five fillings to be replaced.