My understanding is that Eink is sitting on a lot of patents describing these displays. When the first will expire in a few years we will hopefully see competition with new formats.

By that time, maybe we’ll have high-res holo lens available, and eink will have missed the boat

thats a vastly different usecase. Just like eink is still currently the best screen for ereader, it still gonna be relevant for programming once it came out with better refresh rate suitable for programming screen. You underestimate the value of not having your eyes strained. And battery life as extra. Pretty sure "holo lens" and other alternative gonna fail those aspects, at the very least

Models based on the Canvas technology with A2 refresh mode are quite up to the task for programming, if you can stand a little ghosting here and there. The problem is, they're small (13'' max), and obviously more expensive, but not more than a decent gaming monitor.

It is almost as if for some reason they don’t want programmers outdoors ;) But on a serious note this could be THE e-ink killer feature to propel it in the market.

You may want to check Boox Max2 monitor mode ;-)

https://youtu.be/SSv0g-pYMAk?t=603