I agree, I climb a lot IRL and yep, VR can't come close to touching that experience :). But yeah as far as what VR is good for, there are definitely places where it sings: and where people tend to make a mistake is thinking that it can be a 1-1 with reality and is supposed to replace existing experiences, like climbing or skydiving. I think it's more of a creative medium that will need a really long time to develop (think film, which has had over a century to get its feet under it).

Anyway as an example: this video is kind of the inverse of skydiving, (360 camera on a balloon floating into space), but definitely an interesting experience that can't really be replicated on traditional media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCve1w1GFOs&ab_channel=Seeke...

Another really interesting one: https://tenderclaws.com/theunderpresents