VR already has a killer app: Beat Saber. As for Half-Life: Alyx, it's very well done, but dear god is it intense. I'm playing through it a few minutes at a time because that's all I can handle. VR is incredibly immersive, but as it turns out, there are worlds I just don't enjoy being immersed in, and the oozy, drippy, terrifying world of Half-Life (much as I love the previous games), is one of them. The new gravity gloves are a delight, however.
I've been watching playthroughs because I don't want to purchase the setup for Alyx at the moment for several reasons. My impression matches yours. It seems like a great game, but in watching it, I realized it's basically all the urban City 17 setting of HL2, which was my least favorite setting of the previous HL2 episodes. It reminds me of a very well-done variant of HL2:E1, which I found very intense and claustrophobic. I'm very interested in playing it but maybe less so than if the game involved a wider range of environments. I can't fault Valve for focusing on what they did, but at the moment something more relaxing or casual is more commensurate with my mood.