1) Managing remote workers is a harder task than managing in office employees.
2) Time zone differences can slow work.
3) Cultural differences can cause problems with team cohesion.
4) Tax differences add to the cost of distant employees.
1) With hybrid work on the rise managing remote is already a task, granted there are different levels to it
2) Similarly time zone differences can be taken advantage of, there are people to handle on call during normal working hours and cover national holidays for example. Also, some kind of work not depending on cross timezone collaboration can be done faster e.g. answering customer inquiries.
3) Also there is strength in diversity. A diverse set of experiences and backgrounds can help not to be blindsided by a monoculture for instance
4) Indeed, taxation can add accounting overhead, but even if we take that into consideration local wages will still dwarf the full cost of remote teams in some cases.
While I find it plausible that someone would put more value in having local employees even in a multinational setting, I would argue that is the exception rather than the rule.