there a plenty of people with the computers to run proper vr that want to use it

"plenty"

You mean like five percent of all VR players

I mean, I agree that using it in public is a nonsense gimmick, but nobody cares about visual fidelity, because the gameplay is always the selling point. People would be out of their mind if Alyx ran with mobile graphics regardless, complaining about "bad graffix" is like complaining about your table tennis plates being set up inside a gym instead of a nice zen garden.

People want convenience, and desktop setups are never even remotely convenient, least of all last gen when base stations were a thing. Visual fidelity is fine for most ports, close to indistinguishable for greatly optimized and mobile-friendly software like Audica or Thumper.

They're right, standalone is the way to go. Nobody wants tethering either, and the only reason we'd accept it today is because of the comfort aspect of not having a battery pull on your face. PCVR has turned into the tiniest niche overnight, and it will only get so much "worse".