There are many practical uses for VRML (Score 1)

You wrote:

Nah there's plently of dinky little 3d VRML objects around. You get a pencil or something and you can rotate it with your mouse. Great fun for about 2 minutes.

Funny, most of the VRML I have seen has been quite specific applications. Most of the Java I have seen has been stupid animated icons.

There is a nice jumping place to other VRML worlds, and it is reachable from here. The vast majority of worlds out there are not little play toys, which is not what you can say about the vast majority of java applets.