I doubt a cheap phone will play 6k video flawlessly...
I don't think any phone is gonna be playing 6k VR video.
pretty sure 3k is the resolution limit for phone screens currently.
And generally Higher Res = larger screen/phone and thus very difficult to find a smartphone headset.
So yeah the realm of using a Smartphone for VR is def not an easy task like Moo here seems to think.
And I'm saying it doesn't really, since you can manage with a phone.
If this specific artist doesn't supply lower res versions of this VR content, that's another issue. You could try asking him for phone friendly versions (like a lot of VR artists have), or just do a simple conversion yourself.
But "VR tiers" for video content in general are not really the "closed garden for the rich" that you make them out to be. Just like how normal 8K video tiers aren't really excluding people with old PCs because at the end of the day pre-rendered video content can be consumed on a toaster if needed.
So as a Smartphone VR user (and in general) My take is that in general the tier has to be worth the cost.
Like I mentioned before quality and a consistent flow of content are key to get me to Sub.
There are some VR creators a Sub to and probably always will. There are some i'm on the fence about, and others i don't think I'd ever give my money to.
As someone who only uses VR as porn the fact that the VR-tier is a higher tier because includes everything in the previous tiers + the Vr renders Imo is a shit cost factor. because I have to pay for something i don't care about and won't use to get something I will. It's like having to buy a case of of bran flakes at a 15% mark-up because 2 boxes will be Raisin Bran, but you only want the Raisin Bran.
As someone who can only use 1080p, I have no way of knowing if AniAniboy has rendered/processed the VR versions in multiple resolutions. I have to pay first, then find out if i need to spend an hour or so converting the 8k vids down to 2k.
I also have no idea if they even did a good job with the VR or not since they don't have any free sample work of it, not even like a still frame render.
You can "Manage" and "get-by" with a smartphone for VR definitely. But as someone who is an advocate for how inexpensive it can be to get started with VR that way. I'm well aware of the limitations. And that in general the VR user community tend to be seen as maybe not "rich", but financially sound/grounded. Because while at the beginning there was i big wave with the Smartphone VR. That wave crashed pretty quick as far as development goes, and internally theres a lot of (i think non-intentional) elitism within the VR user community against smartphone VR.