I agree it seems that “smokeless tobacco” means “consuming tobacco by putting it in your mouth rather than putting nicotine into air and inhaling it”. I assumed that “smokeless tobacco” included “vaporized nicotine”, probably due to my unfamiliarity with nicotine products.

Regardless, it seems that using a vape leads to less harm than using cigarettes:

There is substantial evidence that e-cigarette exposure is associated with biomarkers reflective of cancer disease risk. However, the overall evidence on cancer risk is still limited and should be further investigated by future research, particularly rigorously designed clinical trials and population-based research.