Yeah having just the hands interact with things would be fine. Having the environment jostle my characters body around any time I bump into something was nauseating, I hated climbing in Boneworks because your guy just weeble wobbles all over the place, bouncing about, and his arms can get stuck in shit, or it would push my face into whatever I'm trying to climb and make it hard to see, it just made me not want to explore the levels. I don't hate Boneworks or anything, but to me it feels like a tech demo, it does a lot of cool things, and a lot of things that don't work so well, feels like its something that could be taken and refined. I think TWD did a much better job of being immersive without making the game kind of a drag to play.I agree. Although I try to picture what the game would be like without a physical body and ... I think it would be fine? I mean the whole physics sandbox was what the devs were going for, and if that's the artistic direction they want then who am I to judge? But I think the game would be far more enjoyable if only your hands had physics.
I feel like I mention H3VR like every other post I make in this thread, so I'm sorry if I sound like I'm shilling for that game (I only kind of am - it's awesome!) but I like how that game implements physics. Basically if you're holding an item or weapon, it has full physics and will interact with the environment, but say, the billy club in your waist band wont get stuck on walls until you grab it and hold it - hope that makes sense. It would really tighten up the way Boneworks plays.
I also l can't stop thinking of Boneworks as "Weeble-wobble Simulator: 2019" now thanks to your post.
I love H3VR though, it's easily the game I've spent the most time with in VR. I think I have 45 hours in it so far, and like maybe 8 in Boneworks and 4 in The Walking Dead. I'm a bit of a gun enthusiast so I love the attention to detail on some of the guns, like that you can rack the slide of your pistol off the environment, or I've even had chunks of sosig hit my pistol, rack the slide, and eject a round. Or having to operate two seperate switches to engage full auto on the Kriss Vector or L95. So good.