Asking FLASHAHOLICS if flashlights are addictive is like walking into an AA meeting and asking if alcohol is addictive.
Honestly, there are MANY flavors of this hobby.
For example, there are those who collect them the way others collect stamps, etc...or jewels, etc...and they get very fancy lights with tritium inserts and keep the lights in cases and display them, etc...
...and there are those who simply work/live where its too dark sometimes, and, need a light to see what they are doing, and don't "collect" lights as much as get ones that look like they might fill a need....
...and there are those who are into an ASPECT of the lights, such as color rendition, or how dim can it be and still be on, or how far away can it still light something up, or, how large an area at once can it light up, how cool the UI is to them, and so forth....
...and there are those who just want everything in their POCKET to "match/coordinate" so they are constantly adjusting the knife/watch/light EDC combinations, etc....
...and, there are those who use them for work, and, they are tools, just like a mechanic's wrenches, etc.
To be sure, there are MANY overlaps and transitional phases between all of the above categories. IE: A guy who'd never thought about lights in his life "just wanted to know a good light to walk his dog"....and, gets exposed to the universe of lumens and lux, and, ends up with a fascination with what's out there...and transitions from an initial utilitarian interest to a broader interest.
So, some of us are in ALL of the above categories, some in some, or one, etc....depending on where we live, what we do for a living, how afraid of the dark we are, and what trips our triggers as far as a light's workmanship and performance.
This is why there is SUCH a variety of threads that seem to be from different universes, with some wanting to know how bright a light can get because they want the brightest, other how dim it can get because they want the dimmest, and others just wanting the beam to not have any imperfections, and to be a certain tint, etc....and others wanting it to be reliable, or beautiful, or water proof, or bullet proof, etc...or all of it.