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With cigarettes, it's the burning that creates the issue, as the excessive amounts of heat create the carcinogens and the smoke.

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It's not just the burning, many toxic chemicals are already present and the processing[1] makes it worse. The processing converts things like nicotine, and happens at relatively low temperatures- lower than those in vaporizers. Plus, keep in mind that nicotine is in tobacco as a poison for insects. Tobacco doesn't want to be consumed by humans either.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco-specific_nitrosamines

Chewing tobacco is still carcinogenic.

What in tobacco makes tobacco so bad, compared to all the other plants and animals people chew on?

But perhaps not because of the nicotine.

http://www.medicinenet.com/smokeless_tobacco/article.htm

To me it's unclear whether or not nicotine itself is actually bad.

I haven't said nicotine is carcinogenic.

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