There was Magic Leap, they did ship hardware, but it sucked.
https://resources.magicleap.com/en-us/careers
Supposedly they have open roles, but it's probably just for show (since displaying 0 openings would be perceived as a negative signal). Archive.org corroborates not much is changing.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/https://resource...
and on v2 of the product. If you really want optical AR hardware that's affordable and stylish your best bet is
I think they have a great story for "watch TV in AR" but I don't think their story for AR applications is that good.
If it's not for some strong built-in reason (impossible-to-update firmware has a hard date after which it will crash, etc.), do you think picking up one to experiment with would still be worth it?
By imitating Disney, that's how!
But yeah, your impression lines up with what I was hearing 10 years ago too. Magic Leap was leaning waaaaay too hard into a premium market that was too poorly formed to satisfy, with decreasingly valid value prop as the field of VR evolved. Google Glass would bite the bullet, HoloLens found a few government contractors to pick up the bill and surely Vision Pro will peter out with similar slight entrenchment.
Mainstream VR just doesn't make sense, and consumers won't admit it because we're desperate to be wowed. I like my Oculus Quest, but even a perfect version of the headset wouldn't replace my phone or my PC.