Maybe there is some true limitation inherent in this style UI which causes them to stay as mere experiments / novelty?

I'm thinking about demos like this which I've seen go by HN over the years (I'm not involved in any of these):

LCARS demo: https://www.mewho.com/ritos/

Tron-like terminal: https://github.com/GitSquared/edex-ui

Sci-fi UI components: https://github.com/arwes/arwes

And I've long been a fan of designers like gmunk doing UI work for film: https://gmunk.com/Oblivion-GFX

But I'm genuinely confused why the actual UIs we all use on a daily basis are all so derivative of one another when the space of UI possibilities is so vast.