I used to play DoDS just fine with vorpX a year ago, though in testing today I get the same result as you. Game attempts to load, but stops seconds later. Starts fine without vorpX.
I think there is a conflict with recent updates to either the HL2 profile, or the game itself (had a game update today even).
After messing around some, I found error calls to sourcevr.dll found in the “Day of Defeat Source\bin” folder. So I simply removed sourcevr.dll to an external folder, and was able to hook with vorpX.
(Steam may attempt to reinstall the dll upon launch, but so far I’ve only had to remove it twice and it has stopped)
I’ve learned that you must launch DoDS through steam client to get servers to show in the browser. Launching via hl2.exe directly wont populate the browser.
I am unsure about DirectVR at this point, but can say that the game can hook with working Geometry 3D. You just might need to do some scale and fov adjusting in game.