Virtual reality has no consequences. Relationships have consequences. In the 1999 movie The Thirteenth Floor , it is the people in virtual reality who are not real. Computer simulations of people turn out to be created by people who are themselves computer simulations of people. Both simulations discover that they are not real, and the result is chaos - a breakdown of the moral fiber that holds society together.
Murder is a meaningless event.
Life is meaningless. Yet the created characters have all of the attributes of real people - they suffer, they have pleasure, they have goals and purpose. They can be unplugged. But can't we all. At one point, the unreal people have relationships.