Nope nope nope... Mark has said many times that this was not a huge mover, and before the FDA stuff you never saw people say much of anything about it. It was definitely a sleeper, as are most of the high nic stuff. Before the FDA you never saw anyone run out of the GH&co high nic stuff like ropes. Most pipe smokers prefer aromatics, and then Englishes, with Virginia blends being the slowest mover besides the high nic stuff. You will see many posts about things like LTF being too high in nic for some.
The mad FDA rush pushed all of the ropes and high nic stuff off of the shelves, and because these were never ever fast movers, these companies were not prepared to restock as quickly as other blends, giving the illusion that there are a lot of high nic smokers.
Honestly, after seeing comments and posts for all of these years, the majority of pipe smokers are rather weak knee'd when it comes to nicotine.