Do try and think it through, p. Why would they even try it if it didn't have any social cachet - let alone go back to it? I can assure you it's not the taste.
You may not realise this, but you don't instantly get addicted to cigarettes. It takes effort. You have to go through a few weeks of doing something actively unpleasant before it becomes enjoyable (ie an addiction). Why on earth would you do that if there weren't other social factors at work?
Of course smoking is cool. The fact that most people aren't cool and so don't smoke does not disprove this.
There's never any peer pressure to be uncool, p. There's only ever peer pressure to be cool.
And nobody wants to emulate uncool grown-up things like paying bills or getting life insurance. They want to emulate illicit, forbidden things like sex, drugs, drink and smoking.