All the remote teams I came across have a good coms setup between slack, slack huddle/audio, zoom and email.
The argument of 'your calendar has too many meetings' is flawed. This issue comes down to poor time management or a flawed team/organisation structure (e.g. corporate meetings with 8+ attendees in the meeting when only 3 of them are really needed).
Proof in the pudding: - Loom has been around for years but is still used mainly for product demos. - Yac is pivoting according to their homepage
Who agrees/disagrees?
I believe remote work and async communication increased the feedback loop and reduced focus. For you to get your PR reviewed/merged or simply unblock some other person, will require more time than working together.