> Somehow we were better at using remote tools while literally in the same office than some teams are at using them now while fully remote.

This is sort of the point. Remote tools work great when you have spent a lot of time building relationships and rapport with the people involved. That's hard to do in professional settings, and extremely hard to do in remote professional settings.

Letting teams that know each other well work remotely works great. Building teams remotely is very hard.

I'm a diehard for remote work, but we have to be realistic abouts limitations.