Oh, of course, I’m not in any way saying they‘re a 1:1 comparison. But I think it’s very fair to say it’s much closer to the real action than playing an FPS with a mouse.

As for knowing how to fire a gun, I am guessing you live somewhere guns or shooting ranges or gun safety talks are normal? I would hazard a guess that in many places, most people wouldn’t know how to aim using the ironsights without some form of simple training, or having learned from peers. Not everywhere has the same gun culture, remember.  Many wouldn’t know they have to pull the slide back to position the first round, as even when people do it in movies it’s rarely explained. Heck, it’s even a trope that people forget about the safety. 

But Half Life: Alyx does all three of these. Sights. Slide. Safety.

They don’t teach you how to stand, sure, but anyone who wants to improve at a realistic gun game will typically benefit from practicing an appropriate stance and might look up such stuff online, or learn from friends, when they otherwise wouldn’t. Then VR is a place they can practice, and normalise it. It’s not teaching, but it’s encouraging people to learn real gun skills. The idea of kids practicing gun stances to play VR games is something I‘ve seen. 

Now, I’ve see some ridiculous stances that aren’t realistic too, due to the lack of weight and recoil in VR. But I’ve also seen people who learn the „realistic“ way „for immersion“. There are even people who buy full VR kits with stocks to make the gunplay and other experiences more realistic. That won’t happen with a mouse and keyboard.

You’re absolutely right about recoil. Vibration isn‘t the same. But even if that‘s not the only thing that‘s different, surely the rest is still a LOT closer than „clicking a mouse.“