With respect to the metaverse being boring... I agree. Most VR experiences are lacking. This is a bit of a chicken and egg situation (in my opinion only: I know how bearish HN is on anything VR). There aren't enough users to get enough investment in creating experiences, and not enough experiences to really get the users... There's the odd exception, like Alyx, but creating a whole metaverse is a much bigger challenge.

User creation is one option but you identify the limitations of this.

One thing that might change the situation is AI creation. Considering generative models can already create 3d models, creating VR worlds should be soon possible. Being able to produce large amounts of VR content quite easily could make something like a metaverse suddenly feasible.