Ah. Now I get it. First, ignore the Backchannel article and read the article it references, by Google's head of AR/VR.[1] See the image "Play Store on Daydream".
That's trying to reproduce an effect known in retail, where the customer enters the store, goes into sensory overload because there's so much stuff, and stops thinking. At that point, they're vulnerable to making bad purchase decisions. Retailers exploit this. Pay attention to what you can see from one second inside the store entrance.
Trying to replicate this online leads to a cluttered display. With VR, the whole sphere of view is available, and you can put more impulse buy stuff into immediate view. Profit!
The idea that VR can help people process or receive information better gives actual reality too much credit. Sure there are going to be niche (possibly even large niche) areas where VR is an amazing help, like medical and mechanical work. But for the most part, actual visual perception plays a limited role in how humans use information.
That's trying to reproduce an effect known in retail, where the customer enters the store, goes into sensory overload because there's so much stuff, and stops thinking. At that point, they're vulnerable to making bad purchase decisions. Retailers exploit this. Pay attention to what you can see from one second inside the store entrance.
Trying to replicate this online leads to a cluttered display. With VR, the whole sphere of view is available, and you can put more impulse buy stuff into immediate view. Profit!
Finally, the killer app for VR.
[1] https://medium.com/@claybavor/virtual-and-augmented-realitie...