And not being there also has the consequence that I do other things on the day and it's a lot more "in between" than focus.
All that, I assume, also reflects to the experience for the audience.
I gave a remote talk a bit earlier this year, and that was the hardest part for me. I didn't quite realize how much I adjusted my speaking based on how the room is reacting. Sometimes my sarcastic humor doesn't land, or it would have landed but I talk way too fast, or people just can't understand what I'm saying and I can see that by looking at peoples' facial expressions.
Probably won't do it again unless there's some kind of emergency. I would have done it in person even this last time, but there was some scheduling conflicts on my end. It's just a lot more fun to do this stuff in person.
I not sure how live rehearsal, virtual conference would work. Great for some presenters, not so great for others.
That said, it's not apples to apples. I spend like 60% of my day coding, which of course I can do from pretty much anywhere, and it doesn't really matter if my jokes land. When I do video calls, it's generally in relatively small meetings, and it actually is relatively easy to gauge reactions that way.
It feels like you're extrapolating a bit much here.
In remote work with zoom meetings for me (may be different in other jobs)
* Most meetings are in small groups/teams and more discussion, where the feedback problem works better than a conference talk for 100 people * I know most of the audience, thus know what this expected to present, where the audience got experience and which humor does (not) work * In many meetings I can keep it running on the side while doing some other work and only give attention to the parts relevant for me * and am not involved in all that office noise and all the related distractions, but focus on my actual work
My boss of course has to trust me I do my stuff instead of standing behind me.
For larger milestones etc and socializing having in person meetings once in a while is important. But day to day remote massively reduces distractions and removes a lot of irrelevant stuff.
For others, perhaps it is, and your point would hold more water for them.
But surely you can see that yours is not a one-size-fits-all answer.