Maybe I'm old, but I don't see what advantage this has over video conferencing unless the focus of the discussion is on things - like documents, schematics, or 3d models - rather than people.

Avatars would feel like creepy cartoons because your brain knows the voice of the person but your eyes see a cartoon image.

In just a few minutes, most people start treating those cartoons as real people without even realizing it. Ask anyone who's tried these things (they are already available: https://www.vspatial.com/, https://www.oculus.com/blog/workrooms/)

Tried it. Hated it. "Most"? Get a bigger sample size, then we'll talk.

I don't know if this is a truism in the VR community, but the brain really does want to make consistent sense of things.

See also, Presence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immersion_(virtual_reality)#Pr...

The benefit is that instead of being a cringe m*le I can be a cute little fox girl. Realistic avatars would be more creepy imo.