Have they? I can think of a small number of majority-remote companies, but none of them stick out as being wildly successful. Of course, being wildly successful is rare enough that it may not be solid evidence one way or the other.
> Perhaps it’s more tempting to blame remote work than to blame one’s own leadership, or whether one has the right team.
1) I'm sorry, but damn near every online meeting we spend 5-10 minutes waiting for somebody that has to fiddle with their AV setup. When people show up 5-10 minutes late for real meetings, management is going to have a chat with you for wasting everybody's time.
2) Not everything is software. For example, it's still stupidly difficult to replicate whiteboard interactions with online technologies. And if you have any contact with hardware, the lab is extremely difficult to replicate.
3) WFH is not heading toward more async, it's heading toward more sync. As someone pointed out in the comments, being forced to be on a call continuously for 8 hours is starting to become a norm. At that point, I'd rather be in the office.