Derek, you missed my point completely. I've had my own company for 30 years, and we have worked over the decades for countless huge corporations with 100s of thousands of employees. We take good ideas from these companies and integrate them into our work processes.

That is my practical experience, but I also read about successful company practices and implement those also internally.

That is one of the reasons why my company is still around and independent after 30 years.

Successful companies are more than just the sum of their workers. They have a culture. They are a team. You cannot build a team if there is no teamwork, and teamwork is VERY limited if everyone is remote. It is also not as efficient business-wise.

I saw this working with remote teams starting in 2004, and leading them starting in 2007. I have compared apples to apples in real time. Of course that is anecdotal, but it was not one experience, but many.

Completely remote work is turning humans into widgets. That can save costs and get you a better individual widget, but you will never get the "more than the sum of individual parts" that humans working together as a team exhibit.

The less experience, the greater the time-zone and cultural divides, and the more time spent remotely, the less teamwork you'll have.

Your last paragraph is endemic of the "humans are just widgets" attitude. Maybe that works for a company like Google that is a monopoly with jumbo jets full of monopoly profits and who WANTS a work force that is scared and/or disloyal. Most companies are small startups, and that attitude (IMO) leads to bankruptcy or a path that can ONLY lead to being acquired.