> VR 7-8 years ago wasn't gated behind a store

You make it sound like it is all gated behind an app store now somehow. Which is not the case at all.

On my quest 2 headset, I can play games from oculus store, I can also play any steamvr/pcvr games on quest 2 (connected to the desktop PC by a cable or in wireless mode), as well as any user-built application .apk files dowloaded to my headset directly (either from the headset's web browser or transferred from PC). All on the official firmware, no jailbreaking or any special steps needed to make this work.

Not sure how this is even remotely representative of some app store gating.