I worked on a Gear VR title called theBlu. I thought Gear VR was going to be a gimmick, but its actually pretty great and its a fantastic entry point for people who are new to the VR space. Its easy to just hand it to someone and have them check out the experience. Plus- No wires!
The price feels a little steep to me, but if you're into VR and you don't want to constantly be updating a huge tower rig, this is a great option. As for micro-trans, the fact that it wouldn't be available at launch was a surprise- A lot of devs put in a lot of time and resources before they dropped that bomb in late summer.
I feel like mobile vr is going to carve out a niche in media viewing early on, because it requires lower power requirements, the benefits are immediately obvious, and content is coming, while Oculus rift will serve higher end applications.
Gear vr is where stuff like fox's vr projects or NIN's vr concert will likely drop.