A nice personal write-up about someone's experience in VR, I liked it:
http://time.com/4172998/virtual-reality-oculus-rift-htc-vive-ces/
As for "just another gimmick" - I have (fortunately) the freedom to entirely ignore anyone else's opinion. I am wishing for actual VR for decades already, this was before the time of 3D TV at home. And now it's here. I don't see a reason to wait even longer.
You know, when I got my C64 in the early 80s, most people looked at me like crazy. Computers were something for nerds, not for normal people...
When I started to build my first modem, people and family looked at me like crazy. (The fact that I ran up horrible phone bills probably didn't help either Now, grandma and granddad are booking flights on the internet.
I notice a "more than normal" aversion of people when it comes to 3D/VR...most people initially have a negative stance. Probably because of all the 3D flops in the past, anaglyph, 3D movies, 3D TV etc., seems this tech has some sort-of stigma to it, sometimes justified, sometimes not.
(I think I said that on many occasions already, 3D TVs, monitors etc. all have a significant problem, this is lack of FOV for immersion. They cannot create "presence", just being some sort of "window" into a 3D world similar like looking into an aquarium. VR is fundamentally different and doesn't have this flaw)
I remember one decade (or longer even) back when VR kits with specs like 320x or 160x pixel resolution and shitty FOV (don't remember the exact specs) cost tens of thousands of dollars. If it hadn't been for Palmer, we still wouldn't have affordable/usable/supported VR, let alone for the mainstream. This is actually remarkable that this entire development comes from the enthusiasm of ONE person, a person who like some others SAW the potential and simply couldn't understand why this tech never developed further.