That is a great question. I have many years experience brewing tea as well.
The wonderful flavors of tea, as well as the active alkaloid caffeine, is stripped from the tea leaves with water. It is the structure of these molecules that allow it to bind well with water.
Cannabinoids, as well as many of the flavors of ganja, will not bind with water. They will however, bind with oil. You can steep or fry cannabis in cooking oil, the result of which will be a flavor and cannabinoid rich oil.
Oils are not safe to inhale, and there is no easy way to separate oil from the cannamagic.
Vodka is an interesting solvent, because it will strip both stuff that typically binds to water, and the stuff that binds to oils. It isn't difficult to then separate the vodka from the plant extract.
Those of us who focus just on getting high use solvents that selectively strip the cannamagic while leaving everything else behind. Butane is excellent at that task. Alcohols are far more aggressive, and far less selective, so they are best used for short durations at low temperatures.
You mention PG and VG, but the truth is neither are good solvents for stripping cannamagic.
