Money isn't lost its been spent on research, of course finding a 100 ways something doesn't work doesn't mean that much if you don't find the 1 way that does.

Meta are trying to force AR into the world, like trying to produce a baby in 3 months by having having 3 women. Maybe they are close, maybe they are producing a load of useful research for someone else to exploit in the future. Apple supposedly bringing out their thing 'this year', but there has been little exposed of it, maybe they are just egging on Facebook to waste there time/money .. time will tell.