QR Codes definitely have valid use cases, and I'm wondering if they aren't also somewhat 'ahead of their time'. They are useful ways to transfer contexts in the physical world. VR, and especially AR (Augmented Reality), is about combining the physical world with the digital one.
I'm imagining a future where not very many people "see" QR codes, but rather have AR devices like we have cellphones now, and they simply see the relevant content in place over the QR code or similar. I think of use cases like glancing down the street at a bus stop, seeing live updates of a NCAA bracket on a poster on the wall, those sorts of things.
I think a lot of the problem with QR codes is simply the friction of using them. I could see them used much more if you could simply open a website by literally pointing a phone at them (e.g. without any setup, opening apps).
When we have persistent AR at all times, the friction could be non-existent, you already see the information in place.
There's also the possibility that location and motion tracking are good enough that they can always be virtual, but I feel like the real world reference and 'binding' cues are important. We'll see how things unfold.
Partly why about the only case where I've found QR codes particularly useful is the Xbox One with Kinect. Voice command "Xbox Use a Code" and then hold it up for the Kinect camera, maybe walk it forward a bit. Not a lot of friction and Xbox One QR codes almost all mention the "Xbox Use a Code" voice command. (Remembering the days of the Xbox 360 where nearly every game had at least one packed in code and you typically just typed them in with the soft keyboard and your gamepad, the Xbox One QR codes are a genuine improvement if you have a Kinect, though at this point in the lifecycle pack in codes seem a little less common and digital only purchases a more common preference for myself.)
http://dangrover.com/blog/2016/01/31/more-chinese-mobile-ui-...
Around 2004 I was helping out with a first-year science fiction convention and we needed barcode scanners for the art show and convention store but couldn't afford to buy really nice ones on a shoestring budget. So we used CueCats. They're slow compared to the nicer flash scanners, but worked pretty well. :)
Every time I see a QR code, I think of CueCats and wonder if anyone actually scans them. Seems like that "fad" has started to fade recently.