I think you’d probably be safe to hop on board the Bets train around visionOS 2.0 Beta 3. With visionOS 2.0 feeling much more like an incremental update to fill in the gaps between what’s there in v1.2 what should’ve been there when it shipped instead of some radical redesign or a bunch of radical, major new features I think waiting until Beta 3 is a good mix between a completely conservative approach and still being able to check out the new stuff before it ship. The chances there are any show stoppers left by then are pretty slim and you can still wait several days after it’s released to let others go first.
AVP 1.2 worked for me without light, but to get it started I would need to use a light source such as my iPhone or Apple Watch (not the flashlight, just turn it on and place it under the AVP. A few seconds later it will start working and now you can turn off the light of your phone/watch.