Yes? That's precisely why racing games have always looked so good. You are on a rail moving forward, it can do culling techniques to remove the world behind you that aren't feasible in a normal open-world environment.
It's more like you don't understand the goalposts to begin with. Every racing game you post, every space game you post - they all fall into what I'm talking about.
Because, as I said, they are concentrating on media-based experiences and games that purposefully hide all the things it cannot do.
But that isn't on rails, I would be in full control of the car and I can even turn it around and go in the opposite direction (would do me no good, but that is besides the point). That is the opposite of on rails, where you have no control and you just go for the ride, like a roller coaster or a train, hence the term, so you're just inflating genres to fit into your view.
I get you're a dev, and you work with VR, but I don't think you can say that those games I mentioned are not what they represent, or else most all games by your definition are on rails, stationary, in a void, or a corridor... what else are we really left with? What games are you talking about that are so powerful, yet don't have one aspect that you mentioned that will be in VR?
Now how about The Witness? Blow has already teased his game with VR support, albeit with OR (this was before PM was announced, I believe). I wouldn't find it hard to believe the reason we haven't seen or heard from his game in much detail in so long is because he wants to launch with PM, so I would not be surprised to see the game officially get announced with support for PM at E3, but we'll have to wait and see for that... not too long now! So, essentially if that does pan out, that is an open world where you can tackle the puzzles in any order (not on rails). It's not in the void of space, it's not stationary in a room, and you're not walking thru a maze of corridors at all times... what then? What are the limitations at that point?
And what of MM? Do you remember the demo they showed with the sculpting? I'm sure you've seen it... and I'm sure you've seen this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnqFdSa5p7w
Not only do I think that they made that game with VR in mind (regarding the sculpting aspect), but I think that the actual worlds/games/cut scenes you'll be able to create will playable/experienced in VR... and I'm sure with the push for VR from sony this E3 that we'll finally see what they've been up to as well.