And not being there also has the consequence that I do other things on the day and it's a lot more "in between" than focus.
All that, I assume, also reflects to the experience for the audience.
I gave a remote talk a bit earlier this year, and that was the hardest part for me. I didn't quite realize how much I adjusted my speaking based on how the room is reacting. Sometimes my sarcastic humor doesn't land, or it would have landed but I talk way too fast, or people just can't understand what I'm saying and I can see that by looking at peoples' facial expressions.
Probably won't do it again unless there's some kind of emergency. I would have done it in person even this last time, but there was some scheduling conflicts on my end. It's just a lot more fun to do this stuff in person.
For others, perhaps it is, and your point would hold more water for them.
But surely you can see that yours is not a one-size-fits-all answer.
That said, it's not apples to apples. I spend like 60% of my day coding, which of course I can do from pretty much anywhere, and it doesn't really matter if my jokes land. When I do video calls, it's generally in relatively small meetings, and it actually is relatively easy to gauge reactions that way.
It feels like you're extrapolating a bit much here.
In remote work with zoom meetings for me (may be different in other jobs)
* Most meetings are in small groups/teams and more discussion, where the feedback problem works better than a conference talk for 100 people * I know most of the audience, thus know what this expected to present, where the audience got experience and which humor does (not) work * In many meetings I can keep it running on the side while doing some other work and only give attention to the parts relevant for me * and am not involved in all that office noise and all the related distractions, but focus on my actual work
My boss of course has to trust me I do my stuff instead of standing behind me.
For larger milestones etc and socializing having in person meetings once in a while is important. But day to day remote massively reduces distractions and removes a lot of irrelevant stuff.
I not sure how live rehearsal, virtual conference would work. Great for some presenters, not so great for others.