I would argue that we have been using virtual worlds to facilitate social interaction ever since my friend came around to my house, plugged in his second controller and selected Blanka to fight my Ryu.

The key difference here is that the virtual was used to enhance IRL, not take away from it. Gaming has grown around this paradigm and despite the rise in online adoption the biggest company is still Nintendo who build social games for families and friends to play together. The Switch literally has a second controller you can unplug and gift to a stranger on a train for an impromptu Mario Kart session.

The feedback from the Pandemic is that socialising online sucks and we'd all rather be together in the pub. This was the mass marketing feedback that tells us society isn't just not ready for VR; its that we find the idea abhorrant. (The VR worlds in Snow Crash and Ready Player One were created as a reaction to the dystopian collapse of IRL society)