"Drugstore Cowboy": More Than Just Another Junkie Flick?

Alright, fellow film fanatics, moviebuff_marc here. Just re-watched "Drugstore Cowboy" (1989) and, wow, still hits hard. I'm seeing some serious echoes of classic gangster films, but with a late-60s/early-70s drug-fueled twist. It's not just about scoring and shooting up, you know? Think about it: Bob Hughes (Matt Dillon, killing it!) is basically a small-time hood, leading his crew (wife Dianne, Rick, and poor Nadine) on pharmacy heists instead of bank robberies. The code they live by, the paranoia, the almost romantic vision of their outlaw life… it's all right out of a Bogart movie, but with way more needles. My theory? Van Sant, the director (duh, sorry, should have mentioned that earlier!), is deliberately subverting the gangster genre. We get the same narrative beats – the rise, the fall, the double-crossing (sort of, with Nadine's OD), but instead of pinstripe suits and tommy guns, we have bell bottoms and… well, every drug imaginable. What I'm wondering about is the curse; Bob's almost OCD avoidance of hats on the bed just doesn't make sense to me. Is it a superstitious holdover from previous generations of crooks? Or is he literally just nuts? It'd be a great topic for an essay. And let's talk about William Burroughs! His cameo is brief, but the wisdom of the old junkie, imparting 'advice,' it just elevates the whole thing. It reminds me of the old Italian neorealism films but you know.. with junkies. Sorry, I just had to say it! It makes total sense to recast a familiar story to show the very different world. Overall, is the film perfect? Nah. The ending feels a little rushed after Nadine's overdose, but man, it's a powerful piece of cinema that continues to resonate. What do you guys think? Overthinking it, or is there something to this gangster analogy?