It seems like a concept like "the metaverse" will become necessary at some point as a kind of abstraction layer for communication via future technologies such as Neuralink. The comments I have seen from Zuckerberg on the topic of the metaverse, however, do not suggest that they are conceiving of it at this level of generality, instead focusing on extant video-game related concepts (VR, DLC purchases, etc.). Apple's work in this area (as rumored) also reflects the same limited vision of the concept.