I was SHOCKED to hear how much these things cost. To be fair, the physical hardware felt pretty robust and sturdy, but for the experience they feel like they're 3-4 times too expensive...
I'm in the same mindset as the OP, but with the added caveat of VR sets are way, way, WAA~AAY too expensive for something that would likely be collecting dust within an month.
Hm, the price didn't strike me as too ridiculous, given the price of gaming monitors. There are quite a few monitors that rival or even significantly exceed the price of the Vive. It's also a new generation of a technology, a significant upgrade from what existed before - considering that, I was surprised that they didn't cost even more (though this stance may very well be influenced by the aforementioned monitor pricing).
If I recall correctly, VR Rigs have to render two 1080p 60fps screens to make sure players don't feel motion sickness, which as you might guess, can be quite technically intensive. Basically any fps drop will cause motion sickness.
Unfortunately the technology for all-out VR is straight up just not there yet, which is why I think that right now it will be a niche gimmick until we actually get the level of tech necessary for this kind of thing to hit mainstream.
The bare minimum spec is actually 90 FPS, with 120 FPS being the preferred standard. 60 FPS minimums aren't too hard to attain, even at 2x 1080p resolution (and the current VR headsets each have a total resolution only 1.25x 1080p), but 120 FPS minimums are difficult to achieve even on "high-end" mainstream desktop CPUs with a good portion of contemporary software. We are indeed still quite a way off from both the software and mainstream hardware needed to make high-quality VR commonplace.
At the very least I think they are just plain practical once they become 'easy' technology to make of decent quality. There will be no need for you to get some big fancy 28 inch monitor for your gaming computer when you can have the same field of view (better actually) by sticking a smaller screen on your face, not to mention I imagine the cost of materials for making a smaller on your face OLED display or whatever the new hotness will be will cost less than making a giant OLED panel or whatever.
I guess I'm a dinosaur then, I'd like to stick with monitors for most applications. I like being able to simply look away from the screen :V
All things considered, though, I think VR is quite an interesting technology, and I look forward to future developments. One thing it has driven, for sure, is continued progress in both GPUs and display technology, which has benefits to graphics in and out of VR.
Anyway, just based on my intuition, I imagine it's not a gimmick in of itself, but most of its content will be like that. However, racing games that support it likely benefit greatly, as do horror games I imagine (real horror games, not vr-specific horror games).
Flight sims would also seem to be an optimal application of current VR technology, DCS being an existing example. For me, DCS VR alone almost makes the price of admission worth it, despite the limitations.