I've run distributed projects for a long time. Distributed is significantly more efficient for most situations. The main benefits can be gained in an on site environment as well, but is culturally difficult to implement since on site organisations are already encumbered by ancient hierarchies, egos, communication and decision patterns, etc.

In my experience it's easy to convince top management or company owners/investors, but difficult to get middle management on board. Especially since the requirement for middle management in a distributed project is near zero.

When moving to wfh:

- move to asynchronous, shared, transparent communication. Don't use email.

- trust your people to know what to do, give them more autonomy and responsibility.

- stay in touch, but make sure it's on dev-schedule not management-schedule.

- help your people to eliminate all annoying friction wherever possible. Good audio, soundproofing, temporary walls for their house, good desk, chair, etc. Grocery delivery, child care, errands, and so on. This stuff is cheap compared to lack of time and focus for your devs.