Which technology do you think it's simply "too early" in order to get mainstream traction?
I believe VR is way too early and will only be a toy. I believe what people really want is R2D2's ability to project Princess Leia's 3D image in space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volumetric_display
I share this article that talks about this a bit more: https://www.ratherlabs.com/post/blockchain-and-metaverse
WASM with WASI is a way to run things in a virtual machine that does support it, unless someone breaks it by implementing "faster" "general" file access.
So what provides the best data?
Is it AI? No, AI is fun to play with, but is a remix of existing data and cannot guarantee reliable information, especially in a neutered form that corporations use.
Is it Google? No. Google built a multi-trillion dollar company despite providing really shitty, unreliable data in their search results that is often dead wrong. They're just computer science nerds that are great at algorithms and providing that shitty data on a large scale ultra fast.
The answer to what might be able to give the most important data is oracles.
As far as financial value in the medium term, I'm sure there's going to be some technology that comes by surprise, but at the moment I'd say that "blockchain oracles" and the general concept of "crypto-economic security" are very far ahead of their time now, but are going to be incredibly impactful on many areas of society down the road.
Smart people are starting to understand blockchains and crypto, and smart contracts are a very logical progression from that once you understand the idea that money can be digital and can be programmed. But nothing about smart contracts can work for anything related to the real world without an oracle that provides a reliable decentralized data source. To give a current example, you cannot have a smart contract that works to manage bets on the Super Bowl without an absolutely reliable data source telling you who won the game that cannot be interfered with. The only thing Smart Contracts really are good for now is things like flash loans in crypto trading where you trade/borrow 12,000 Fartcoins for 3,000 Petergriffincoins in one transaction trying to make a buck by being a smarter trader.
Reliable decentralized oracles that are crypto-economically secure (cost more to screw with than they provide in value) are the absolute lynchpin for unlocking the potential of crypto and smart contracts for anything useful in the real world. We're still probably years away from even the smart people in the room understanding oracles, but they're the absolute key to unlocking all of crypto.
If Google's shitty unreliable data is worth multi-trillions, absolutely guaranteed reliable data that can be used in all business applications is worth quadrillions.