Can augmented reality take off where VR has failed?

I absolutely agree with you.

Having tested both 5 years ago, I concluded that AR was years behind VR. About 10 years behind. Today I still think it's the case. Many companies now believes that the best (/most affordable) AR is by doing VR pass-through (Meta, Apple, Lynx).
I remember many years ago that mobile AR kits and AR on mobile phones was trending but not that much applications are using it today.

I can pretty much say there's almost no way for AR to succeed any time soon (for consumer market). Some applications in military, industrial, research, do exists though.

I was the lead strategist for a tech company that held more than 80% AR's IP before they released to public (due to the result of my report). Basically, there's almost no way for this to make enough $ for any megatech, which is minimum $1B revenue/year.

Apple is also focused on VR, but it looks like we wont actually be using any of their headsets until 2023.

Heads up: this tidbit in the article says they will soon have a kit available for devs to use the tech.

Sources told the NYT that Apple is gearing up to introduce a toolkit for developers to add camera and voice functionality to their apps, enabling hands-free control ahead of the headset’s arrival.

This article discusses how Snap's spectacle glasses are the company's next big bet. They aren't widely available, but the author was given explicit access from Snap.

The author apparently has tried out VR headsets from all the major players and has been doing so since 2013. The Spectacles, however, stood out to him as a step above.

When I held out my hand, a butterfly appeared to land on it. I clicked a button on the frames and the glasses told me what I was looking at. Images were bright and clear — although a big limitation is the batteries last just 30 minutes.

Despite his positive experience, the author mentions that the VR market has consistently failed to live up to expectations.

In 2016, Goldman Sachs predicted there would be almost 100 million VR and AR headsets in use by 2020. The number today is estimated at closer to 10 million. While Facebook’s founder remains more enamoured than ever by VR, I have given up waiting for the rest of the world to be wowed