Most of them couldn’t be of any help which was still fine compared to those people who were about to tempt Ethan towards an evil means of escape. These people offered Ethan a way to get rid of his worries, even if it was for a short while. This way was in the form of a “thing”. Ideally, it was not a real escape but a subconscious one. Once he used this “thing”, the desire to have more only increased.