That's a sign that you're in a fairly unhealthy workplace culture. Get out!

Meetings can be useful tools if you make sure to involve the right people and stay focused. This doesn't require anything special. Just define what you want to decide in the meeting, prepare for it ahead of time, and come to the required decision in the meeting -- discussing as necessary.

If you do that, it was a useful meeting. I have one or two such meetings a week at work, occasionally even three. They're rarely scheduled by management, but instead by the engineers building the system.

Meetings can also be used to disseminate information.

Sadly true. I like a turn of phrase from Peopleware - "Status meetings are generally ways for the manager to assert their status as manager." I've had many an inexperienced manager sit there and rotate through talking to each minion in turn, while the other N-1 minions sat silently thinking about what they were going to have for lunch today. Even better are the "stand-up" meetings that have everybody sitting around for an hour every morning, totally killing any motivation or energy for the day.

Thankfully I've escaped that sort of nonsense, but it seems like it can pop up anywhere.

"usually" Is a bit harsh IMO. It can be a lot of times, but then that's a symptom of a much bigger problem. It's hint, more often than not, that the environment is toxic and it may be time to dust off your CV.

Weird then that the overwhelming majority of meetings at my workplace are scheduled by programmers, not managers.

Meetings scheduled by managers stand out from the crowd, but if you count them up, are actually a minority (at least for me).

Or to get an entire team onto the same page?

You should explore other opportunities, if you feel that way for your current work place.