Hey Stephen,
Are you on Discord by chance? We had a really good conversation about this very subject in the #cryptocurrency channel. The reality is, we are very early stages here and none of us are experts in this area. Someone on DIscord shared this piece of news which might help"
https://cryptonews.com/exclusives/investing-in-the-metaverse-4-ways-to-invest-in-virtual-future.htm
Is there a future for metaverse - absolutely - at least that is my belief. Will Facebook be successful? That I am not so sure of. The pros is that it has one of the largest user bases in the world so is welll positioned to bring the masses to the metaverse fold. However, metaverse in theoretical concept is really intended to be decentralized and not owned by a single corporation - so we will have a little ying vs yang here in the metaverse world. Can I tell you who will ultimately be successful? No. It is way to early staged. Do i Think metaverses have a future? 100%.
I know this may not fully answer your questions but it is also important to note that Facebook indicated it would take 10=15 years for the metaverse to actually be something relevant, so this isn't an over night thing. I do applaud them though for being one of the first to go all-in in this area and given their past track record of success and despite all the negativity around them, I would not necessarily bet against them.
Mat