You can't just deny reality because it doesn't suit your opinions.
There are, in fact, a lot of anti-AI people who are familiar with the technology and have used it and maybe even still use it while absolutely hating it and wanting the technology destroyed.
People do, in fact, have their own opinions. Not everyone worships productivity. Many people acknowledge the usefulness of this technology and still reject it for the cultural, artistic, and cognitive impacts.
They weren't called vapes back then - I remember this too. They were usually just called electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes, at least in the US.
I remember sneaking a puff of one as a teenager - they were shaped like and sometimes even coloured like cigarettes, I think they had a intended system of titr8ion down in nicotine dosage too.