[legerdemain]

I am very sympathetic to the claim that urban and residential environments are filled with irritants and distraction. However...

  > Unfortunately, in our modern society, houses have little to no interior
  > noise insulation and almost every single electronic device makes a constant
  > high-frequency drone. Neurotypicals either do not hear these sounds, or tune
  > them out after a few minutes (and then claim the sound doesn't exist, having
  > immediately forgotten it). These houses are then built right next to roads
  > with noisy cars, often without sidewalks, and sometimes with ubiquitous
  > traffic noises when buried deep inside the city. How distracting these
  > noises are depends on the person, the noise, whether it is speech, music,
  > a kind of music you don't like, or a ticking clock. Many places make these
  > sounds inescapable, like restaurants with loud music and conversations, or
  > offices with ticking clocks in every single room.
  > 
  > In contrast, in VR you can wear noise-cancelling headphones and put on music
  > no one else can hear [...]

I don't think you have to be in VR to wear noise-canceling headphones. That said, I also don't think noise-canceling headphones are a solution to incidental, sudden ambient noises, since they are pretty clearly best suited to droning sounds, such as airplane engine noise. In-store music, a baby, a passing truck, and a rattling air conditioning system all easily defeat noise cancellation.