They tend to optimize for the lowest common denominator. Despite having a nice headworn mic and earbuds, great webcam and good lighting setup, Zoom and other apps tend to optimize for using as little bandwidth as possible so my audio doesn't sound nearly as good as it could.
Ben makes some good points that I didn't mention or consider myself: - I wasn't aware of Zoom's "use original audio" feature so I'll need to give that a try. - Dedicated monitor is great; having a presentation monitor allows you to keep your shared screen clean but still have notes and other stuff available. - Open back headphones to hear your own voice: good idea if you have a dedicated space to yourself, but not if you share the space with anyone else
The biggest problem with this is other people: you won't get any benefits from others if they have a bad setup. So it requires everyone to have a reasonable setup (even just a headset makes a huge difference).
[1] https://jonpurdy.com/2020/03/how-to-improve-your-zoomskype-t...