Just anecdotal, but I've never met another RL player in my area (probably around 20 over the years) who gave a rat's ass about either VASL or ASL socializing on the internet. They hate all that shit. They order ASL online. That's it. I tried to get a couple of my buds to give it a shot. Basically, it sucked. They hated it.
For a lot of people, wargaming is a table-top social experience and always will be.
I am eager to try it again because all those guys have either quit playing, too busy, moved away, into other games, etc., so now after coming back to the game after a break of a few years I have no regular opponents. Been playing/designing SASL only, so VASL is starting to look more attractive than ever before.