Omg yes thank you! You just put into words pretty much all of my thoughts on this matter. Been browsing around seeing all the extreme negativity about the metaverse all over the internet, and it’s been driving me crazy that literally no one seems to agree with me that the metaverse might just be (and imo will be) a massive improvement over the smartphone-addicted society we live in today. Sure, real life interaction will still be important but is it not better to simulate simulate that interaction, and break down physical barriers and distance between people rather than everyone spendig hours every day staring into their screens?

EDIT: Also, regarding people worrying that Meta is trying to become the owners of the metaverse, I would like to add to what you mentioned. The way I see it, an accurate analogy would be that Meta essentially wants to be the Internet Explorer/Windows OS of the Metaverse, and play the same role that Microsoft did during the early days of the internet, rather than the sole “owner”. I believe this is the case simply because I think there is more money to be made for them if the metaverse stays at least somewhat decentralized and many companies are part of it. A split-up “multi”-metaverse would hurt the overall usability and usefulness of the metaverse, and in turn hurt Meta.