> If that were true, why would the person be on the plane in the first place? Couldn't they just watch a movie of their destination or zoom call the person they were visiting from home?

It can be the case that both:

* watching a video of the plane moving through the air is an effective way to mitigate some of the discomfort of flying

* meeting face to face with someone is valuable enough that it's worth taking the flight

? people go on planes to get to places not to experience flight itself per se. i don't mind sitting in an enclosed room for x amount of hours while it gets me half-way across the world for cheap