Virtual bodies have provided an avenue to fulfill that promise long since sought after by transhumanists of all varieties - To escape the limitations of the body and inhabit something else. Something crafted specifically to one's tastes, or even just something that serves their comfort and interests better than the flesh and blood they were born into.
The fundamental issue with virtual bodies is, of course, that by their very nature they are intangible. It goes without saying that this limits their applicability in numerous ways, but fundamentally virtual bodies remain the most achievable and accessible* option available for one to who wants to exist as something entirely other than their current physical self.
However, given the inescapable intangible quality of virtual bodies, it should perhaps not be surprising that their application skews toward performance - They are seen, not felt (I cannot, for example, escape the pain of the herniated disc in my back by going into VRChat). Also, more than anything else, these avatars of the self are seen by others far more prominently than the wearer. This lends them to a performative purpose. Whether that be for social purpose or that of public display, virtual bodies have become almost irrevocably entangled with the very concept of performing, and perhaps in ways that would be difficult to anticipate. Of course, all social interaction is performance to some degree, but what I'm speaking of relates more to the idea of the allure of a virtual body becoming almost unconsciously associated with a specific type of performance.
Hence why one who wishes to inhabit a virtual body, for purposes of attaining a different gender, body shape, species, or to attain a shape that exceeds reasonable physical possibility, would immediately assume they'd need to become a streaming VTuber in order to do so. And why some might conflate the commonly accepted goals of streaming as a business (viewer count, income, fame, widespread recognition) as being necessary to the fulfillment of their transhumanist desire of escaping their own body.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, or even why I'm writing it.
But I think about this a lot.
* Accessibility remains a huge issue in and of itself, of course. Cost, space, computing power, ability to commission or create the body in question all remain significant hurdles. However, the point is that these options exist at an individual level. They are no longer science fiction, nor the domain of governments and corporations.
