Labwork is supposedly, at least within your major, training for doing original research. Without the rich complexity and messiness of the real world you are no

Labwork is supposedly, at least within your major, training for doing original research. Without the rich complexity and messiness of the real world you are not going to learn what potential problems (and especially, unexpected details) to watch for. For those going through the motions for "breadth" courses, VR (once it's good enough) would be fine.