But personal, face to face interactions are much better are gauging how a person is going to be when joining a team. Any sort of team.
People on paper sound nice, but when you meet them they are a bit off. I have a scary knack for this and can call out caustic people after the initial interaction.
Regardless of remote/in-person, a piece of paper should never be the sole hiring decision.
In a strangely wonderful way, people who have conditions that would make their 'productive' work in an office impossible have found work and even success as a remote team member on the other side of an email alias and irc channel.
That said, managers are more comfortable when the know their folks a bit more, but they generally are watching for things to go off the rails and head that off rather than whether or not the code is up to standard.
I have had many jobs. I have never had one where the sole (or vast majority) of my interactions with people were via commits.
I've even worked remotely, and Skype, IRC, IM were all critical. Personality and communication skills matter, even if you never see someone's face in person.