I think about these issues a lot because I run my own consultancy - I'm currently hiring freelancers 100% remotely, but as the moment to hire my first few full-time employees looms, I'm having to think very deeply about my hiring model.
I've had very positive experiences with remote work thus far, but none of the work has required outstanding creativity, it's mostly been execution. I will however need a full-time designer and a technical project manager as "captains" who pull their weight creatively and in terms of leadership, and I don't know if going 100% remote would work in this scenario.
There is another area in which I feel in-person meetings are better, and that is business development. I find I'm much more effective carrying out commercial activities - whether it's a speculative prospect meeting or a business pitch - in person that via video call.
On the other hand there are plenty of counter-examples of organizations that carry out creative, high-performance work at a decent scale: Basecamp, GitLab, Buffer, etc. I suspect we haven't seen yet a 100% remote company deliver results at hyper-scale and from scratch because the trend is novel. But large corporations - tech, banks, etc. - have had exceptional results in the last year while working remotely which suggests that it's possible to at least continue ongoing work at a very high level.
Regarding traditionally people-oriented activities, we've also seen in the last year people who have adopted remote workflows for areas like business development or fund-raising. I remember an article a few weeks back interviewing VCs and founders who claimed they were much more efficient at closing deals remotely, given the productivity gains of not having to be on the road as often.
So at the very least there is good evidence that, up to a certain scale and timeframe, 100% remote work can produce really good results.
Whether in-person work is more likely to produce ground-breaking, truly disruptive, innovations, as you claim, remains to be seen. The fact that, as of today, the vast majority of disruptive innovations have come from in-person environments does not prove that producing them remotely is not possible. And I understand why a company like Apple would not take the risk in this regard, but again, this does not prove anything.
I think the question will only be answered in time.