Things get real, after a while, after we adjust to them, and after we go onto other things, think about new issues, and start using the technology for other goals. I don't mind. I think it really is the voice of my friend. Later, I will discuss our willing suspension of disbelief, and our extraordinary ability to feel comfortable in initially extraordinary circumstances. So I reject attempts to distinguish synthetic from natural environments.
All environments are equally synthetic or natural, depending on who or what is doing the sensing.
The latter requires the direct perception of some properties or behaviors of something physically present before the perceiver. If something goes wrong, someone will sue. The software to be used in high end VR systems is, and will increasingly be, complex. Microsoft NT is reputed to exceed 12.5 million lines of code. Add applications, driver software.