The addiction thing is usually a combination of psychological and physiological. There IS a chemical factor when you talk about certain types of nicotine products. For example, cigarettes are horrible for you. All of the additives in cigarettes are what cause cancer, addiction, etc. This is true of lower quality chewing tobacco, dip, etc. Basically the stuff poor people buy because it "helps with anxiety and stress." On the other hand, if you only use really high quality pure tobacco products with zero additives (High quality cigars and cigar derivatives, pure chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, etc.) the adverse health effects are minimal.

Multiple studies have shown that smoking 3-5 average sized cigars a week (Robusto sized since the studies are based in the US most of the time) has basically zero relevance on cancer rates. In fact, those same studies typically show there are legitimate health benefits to the habit, as you pointed out, ranging from improved neurological functions and memory, to increased blood flow and muscle growth, to accelerated metabolism (weight loss), to stimulated hair growth (fight male pattern baldness and thickens hair in most people).

I honestly have no idea where he ranks in the whole cabal part of things, but Winston Churchill is probably the best example of this. Dude chain smoked extra large cigars 24/7 to the point he'd go through 20-30 a day and lived to be in his 90s with zero health problems other than the fact he was obese because he also ate like a freaking pig.