That state is caused by addiction, that, and not VR, is the problem in the picture. The enabler can be whatever: hard drugs, nicotine, coffee, TV, VR, video games,...
Perhaps, but I also see it as a visualization of a future where the masses cannot afford a nice home, and spend the majority of their time in a VR world where they can imagine they live in a nice home.
Are you suggesting those people will literally forget they are living in the real world? I don't see this happening, since they will have to occasionally take the headset off to work, eat, use toilet.
What they will do is ignore the state they live in, and that is already happening today, mostly along with prescription pills, hard drugs and video games. This is what VR is capable of doing, nothing worst that we already have. Therefore VR is not a concern by itself.
Initially, the tech simply won't be good enough to blur that line sufficiently or to have it be "always on." So it will be a temporary thing you put on and experience.
When it is more immersive, and devices are more like glasses or contacts, you'll likely start seeing people spend more time with some form of VR component being "always on." Things like artwork on the walls, lighting, upholstery, paint colors, etc.
Taken to the extreme, if you are a poor person living in a shipping container at some point in the future, and you can afford a device like this, I don't think it is unreasonable to expect that person to spend a disproportionate amount of their time in the virtual experience. That said, they will know it is virtual--it will still just be preferable to reality.
It all comes down to escapism and how that works. This is just a better form of it that will be more widely accessible down the line. I've never argued that VR is a new concern for that--it is just a new tool to facilitate existing approaches.
