> He quit when I started putting deadlines on work when he started falling behind. I got suspicious, reached out to his prior company's CEO to ask if he was still employed,

Similar story here. Person was clearly falling behind and was unreliable. The "it shouldn't matter if they get their work done" narrative doesn't hold up in practice, at least not with any reasonably utilized engineering team.

Now when I hire remote, I get in contact with the person's former company to confirm their start and end dates match the resume.