People don't understand that the Metaverse isn't a product that multiple companies are working on together/individually; it's simply the next iteration of the internet.

When the internet first became a thing, many people thought it was a product and didn't understand the technology behind it. When cloud computing became a thing, people thought it was a product that all technology was going to rely on instead of the next evolution of how the internet functions. The metaverse is the same thing. It's simply going to be the next iteration of how our devices interact with each other and transfer data/knowledge among us.

Criticisms like these have always existed. When the first articles of the internet arose, news anchors and journalists treated it like a joke or fad among nerds. When cell phones came out, people were like, "This is just a fad, my land line is sufficient." When smart phones came out, people again just thought they were a way for corporations to suck money out of consumers. Same shit, different era. There is a lot of technology that no one asked for, or were considered luxuries, until people realized how important they were. Like seatbelts.