I believe that this technique would be a good fit for getting a quick visualization of any interior design for a given location. Being able to rapidly throw items into a given space and see how they flow with given constraints of the initial state of the room allows people to see how that space makes them feel visually. It also allows people to figure out what items would all fit together in the same room. For initial passses of planning out a room, this technique would be valuable, as long as items could be quickly added and setup for interaction.
Where this technique breaks down is everything that is not immediately perceptible by a visual representation of a room. People are constantly evaluating and reevaluating spaces not only by sight, but with every other sense. The first problem is the inability to actually feel the room physically. Yes, you can interact with different objects in the room, but without being able to actually feel the objects in the room, you are missing out on a key component of what makes something pleasing to use. After feeling, you miss out on the scent of the room. For example: how would I know if the office I’ve created in this scenario has a light system that gives off a slight burning scent? Closely related to visuals are background sensations of immediate visuals. Personally, fluorescent lights give me headaches; also, some monitors will make me feel incredibly nauseous after a half-hour or so of use. Many of these sensations are so mild that I won’t notice in 10 minutes of using a room, but will weeks after using said room for a few hours a day. Until VR can capture all of these sensations, this technique will only be useful as a visual draft.
Going off of this technique being useful insofar as a visual draft, I believe this technique would be useful for professional interior designers. A given designer could get a starting sample of whatever room they will be designing for, and then setup that room for a client in virtual reality. These interior designers will not only be able to create the room visually, they would also have a more intimate knowledge of how certain items in the room would affect a given client. By pairing the possibility of quick visual iteration with extensive knowledge of how setting up a room would make a person feel, this technique could be quite powerful.
Given enough processing power, this technique could be more useful if it could also take into account all the underlying sensations that a given client might feel in a given room setup. Because some sensations take a while for a client to notice, a client could say things like “sensitive to certain smells” or something else, and the application would be able to filter through setups that might not be good for that client in the long run.
Only by taking in everything that a room has to offer, aside from the visuals, would this technique become truly useful.