Give a 10mg or 20mg Nic salt a try.
Like the other members have said, everyone is different and just because it works for your friends doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll work for you.
For me, I can’t vape anything above 6mg in freebase “regular” E-liquid because I experience the same tight chest feeling you described. It doesn’t last long, maybe 2 or 3 minutes after vaping, and then it’ll subside. It kind of feels like you’re wheezing if you take a long breath after you’ve vaped. I also found, and still do find now, that anything above 6mg freebase literally all I can taste is the nicotine, even super strong flavours like Heisenberg or similar the nicotine taste is very prominent in 12mg for me, which ruins the experience.
When I first started I went down from 12mg to 6mg freebase (because that was all that was available at the time I quit) and that helped massively. I guess I just didn’t tolerate high nicotine freebase very well. Around a year of vaping 6mg I switched to sub ohm vaping at 3mg using high VG liquids, and stuck with that for many years.
When nic salts came along I gave those a try too, for me the difference between 12mg freebase and 20mg nic salts is night and day, the nicotine hit is instant, smooth and no wheezing. The flavour is excellent too.
The only issue I have with nic salts is that I find I can over indulge with them, the vape is perfect for me and I really enjoy it. To the point where I can vape them so much that I start to get a headache, jittery, palpitations etc. So even to this day I’m still flitting between MTL nic salts and sub ohm 3mg. Usually some salts with my coffee in the morning, then I take a pod out with me if I’m running around for the day, if I’m at a desk or at home I’ll just sub ohm.
So there really is no right or wrong, you don’t even have to stick to one style/strength. Try out some different strengths, some different ratios, different kits. It’ll be expensive at the start whilst you work out what’s the best option for you, but once you’re settled it’ll be worth it.
I wish you the best of luck.