The best headsets are genuinely impressive. Resolution, tracking and passthrough have reached the point where the experience is not the problem. Adoption remains a small fraction of what was projected, and it is worth being clear about why.
The weight problem
A device on your face for hours needs to be light enough to forget. Current hardware is not, and the physics of putting displays, computing and batteries in front of your eyes makes that difficult to fix.
The social problem
Wearing a headset isolates you, and wearing one with cameras makes others uncomfortable. Neither has a technical solution.
The content problem
Games work well and are a niche. Productivity applications work in demonstrations and lose to a monitor for actual work, because a monitor does not need to be worn. Entertainment competes with a television that the whole room can watch.
The application that justifies the device for a broad audience has not appeared.
Where it does work
Training simulations, where the immersion is the point. Design and engineering review, where seeing something at scale matters. Medical and industrial contexts with specific requirements.
These are real and they are professional markets, not consumer ones.
What would change it
Glasses-weight hardware with all-day battery, which requires advances in optics and power that are not close. Or an application compelling enough that people tolerate the current hardware, which has not been found in a decade of looking.
The realistic view
A capable technology waiting for a form factor. Worth watching, not worth investing in as a consumer until the weight comes down.