Adding one more data point for your anecdote. These are the exact reasons I started smoking, and the same excuses I use to continue (along with the newfound addiction of course). It weighs heavily into my cost/benefit analysis for smoking despite all known and experienced bad things about it.
I never liked the socializing part, it was more some kind of FOMO with the smokers. The other ones stand. But the way it should be is that everyone gets a break, and that you can do smoking during the break or something else. Something like smoking a cigarette was something to hold in my hands and something to do when nervous. I know a better way to get some exercise: do a warming up, put on a podcast or music, and go run (cardio). You do two in one, and you don't have to go to a coffee shop (I find the idea of a coffee shop ridiculous, like a pub, because these goods are perfectly affordable and reachable at home but then again I'm not into the socializing aspect).