I disagree with this point. Yes, people can communicate effectively from afar, but can they communicate as well as they could if they were sat in a room? I don't think so.
In my personal experience, there is no difference between a team of people working remotely vs. a team of people sitting in the same open space.
There are differences between working in an office all together and working remotely, and there are definite benefits to being in person, no matter what anyone says, but I've worked off-site for roughly half my career, and I am able to be very effective doing so.
The only downside I've found is from being off-site is that I miss being around people more, so when I was working off-site, I started doing a lot more volunteer stuff that became a little more of a burden when I started back in the office with the concomitant loss of 1.5-2 hours a day or so in free time.
In general, I prefer to work in an office, but my company is moving to the dreaded "open office" plan in about a month, and it's already caused me a lot of stress because I have a hard enough time blocking out distractions in a cubicle. I'm not looking forward to seeing what it's going to be like, but I fully expect to be exercising whatever options are available for working off-site.
A standing video conference room that's always open for impromptu discussions helps as well.
In my opinion, communication between a few like-minded people around a whiteboard, large screen or projector is an easier process than orchestrating it in a chat tool or conference tool. Don't get me wrong, both work well and are better than nothing, but it's just 'easier' to do it 'IRL'
I've been in meetings in a room full of people knowing that absolutely no one wants to be there, and no one really knows what they're doing there.
I've been online talking one to one with someone and completely not understood what they were talking about.
Both have pros and cons and the appropriate medium can be chosen based on the situation that's needed.
I'd argue it's a very rare event that a lot of people really need to be in a room together to communicate; when they do a lot more pre-room preparation needs happen than I normally see. ;)