This "when do you get actual work done" bugs me sometimes. It's true to some extent, but sometimes a bunch of engineers in a room together get a lot of work done. Sometimes even a lot more than if they each did their own thing, come together, and discover that it doesn't fit together.

Not all meetings are like that, yeah, and there's a limit, but meetings not being "actual work" is not generally true.

Also, since pandemic times, I've had it a few times that people were circling via chat or email on a topic forever, and a quick 15 minute online meeting (independently of whether the camera was on) resolved it immediately.