It required a pandemic to "convince" people (recruiters, middle management, and many freelancers alike) that working on-site full-time isn't the only option and that it even might not be the most expedient option when working with independent contractors.

Often, freelancers were - and at times still are - seen as another type of employee, just without that annoying social security stuff ...

This is why there are all sorts of ridiculously complex, "so shady it can't actually be legal" schemes to avoid contractors being classified as falsely self-employed, rather than doing the simple, obvious thing and - you know - let them act as if they were actually self-employed.