What is the need for them in the modern world? The expensive onsite diplomats and their luxury travel are an anachronism when you have Zoom, Microsoft Teams and the IPhone. They can probably dismiss 80 percent of them.
I’ve made a similar argument many times.
When it started, it took days, weeks, months for a courier to get a message to an Ambassdor, foreign leader and then a response.
Now, with iPhones, encrypted communications, jets where you can be anywhere in a day(flying civilian, let alone a govt plane), embassies with 100s of FSOs are a relic from the early 20th century.
Damn near every job, especially those dealing with trade, should be handled by contract individuals that are SMEs in that are.
No reason to have some socialist Harvard grad who never ran a lemonade stand negotiating a trade deal, when we can dispatch the meanest guys on Wall St.
Oh wait….Pres Trump did exactly that with Mnuchin, Ross, Lighthizer, & Navarro and it was awesome.