I think it was primarily an homage to Sherlock Holmes on whom the character is largely based, modern cultural context aside.

To me it was character development. His whole persona is this independent persona - his genius puts him above normal people, rules, and his team is merely there to execute his ideas and bounce ideas off of (like his ball).

Despite all of that, he has crippling pain and a painkiller addiction that he’s utterly dependent on. It brings him back down to earth.

I hadn’t heard this point of view before but it doesn’t seem too unlikely. The homage to Holmes is an effective way to hide it. That’s some good plausible deniability.

House was at least in part based on Sherlock Holmes who infamously had his 7% Cocaine solution. It's not entirely unreasonable to think the writers of House would update that to be pills.

Not everything is some vast conspiracy...

Except that this was such a small detail on Sherlock Holmes novels that few people remember it.

It's such a "small detail" that nearly every modern interpretation of the character likes to portray it for the "fans"

Except that the author of one of the best of Holmes pastiche novels, Nicholas Meyer, titled one of his books "The Seven Percent Solution."

"vast conspiracy"?

How would "hey we can include your product in our TV show" be a "vast conspiracy"? It's done all the time, with no one hiding any aspect of the business.

What? It was clear right from the series start that he has problem with the drug.

His problem is that others disapprove. He goes cold turkey a couple times and proves that he's in actual pain.

I ain't watched much of the show for a while, my wife is fond of it.

> He goes cold turkey a couple times and proves that he's in actual pain.

This doesn't contradict the fact that he's an addict, which is clearly portrayed in the show from the very beginning.

Closer to the end of the series, he basically loses his mind and is destructive to himself and others. An entire plot line was House hallucinating that he had quit and recovered from withdrawals (among other imagined or altered events) only for it to be revealed that he was using more than ever.

So, he canonically has more problems with drugs than social disapproval.