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Shouldn't there be some kind of broadcast mode, where TCP/IP solves the problem of routing (n-1) identical packets in the most efficient way possible?

How does this work when e.g. the BBC broadcasts an internet live stream with millions of viewers? Shouldn't a conference call work in essentially the same way?

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Duplicating a packet in the network is called multicast, and it isn't implemented in the real Internet.

Most large-scale broadcasts use technologies such as HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) or MPEG-DASH, which carve a video into 3-second intervals that are then distributed using ordinary HTTP over a CDN. The problem with these technologies is that they have a latency of a few seconds, which means that you cannot have a meaningful conversation over them.

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