Thanks for your thorough thoughts on the subject. I think there are many ways to set a narrative in VR. You can lead the viewer through the design choices (for instance the similar way BIG is doing it in AR "from the outside") so he can experience the changing space from the user point of view. It seems to be that users are also likely to be occupied by the possibility to imply changes themselves and I don't talk only about changing of the color on walls but also more crucial features like structural elements, etc. We could give them a chance to experience how those changes influence the overall feeling (even if those are only fake - never considered - options chosen so as to emphasize the superiority of the real one : )). Furthermore, some buildings set the narrative of their own by the design choices and we can just follow that experience scripted in architecture by making it even bolder.
On the other hand, a lot of those mentioned features can be shown in a directed, classic way on a desktop. The VR gear can be physically exhausting for new users and it's understandable they will prefer to be seated in the safe environment and look into the screen. Maybe that constant stimulation in VR is needed because without those distractions, the physical experience itself is uncomfortable enough to keep a user off the process of slow sipping a surrounding or even continuing to be in it. I think we need this technology to be implemented in other areas of life until clients get really used to it. Then we can see the growth in popularity of free, non-scripted experience without the dominant narrations in the similar way the "walking simulators" have got popular within the gaming industry.
