you’re assuming though that the virtual worlds wouldn’t help to solve (or at least make irrelevant) those things

Correct, I didn’t go as far as OP with the proposition of “virtual worlds that are near indistinguishable from the real world”. With that assumption your arguments invalidate my concerns.

This proposition feels like drugs without the physical side effects. If I’m [Edit: not] happy with the world I live in, I should try to make it better. Diving into a world without racism, climate change, pollution, or people with radically opposing views while we solve none of these problems in the real world isn’t healthy, I think.

Characters can be ‘the bad guy’ without smoking. Associating ‘being the bad guy’ with smoking is even worse, IMHO than a smoking hero.

I know that episode. And the message, in red bold face across the screen for the entire episode is “Don’t smoke.” That’s different from the on-screen smoking I’m talking about.

Characters can be shady without smoking. Just because they’re not the hero, the appeal of ‘being shady’ and the incentive to look to them as a role model doesn’t vanish.

Just in case someone important reads this:

I really wish movie makers would drop the ‘smoking is {cool,badass,…whatever} trope.’ I’m happy whenever I find that a whole cast never touches a cigarett on camera (think, How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory)