Web meetings are eye-to-eye. If you mean in-person, you'd get a smaller pool of candidates with lesser skills to choose from.
The "everyone on the factory floor" disappeared in the 1970s. Companies design and build entire aircraft all over the world without meeting face-to-face.
I deal with much more talented people across four states that would never have happened if not for remote work from COVID-1984. Clueless management whined for years about not being able to find local firms for certain work (the most clueless in management insisted on having vendors be able to show up for a meeting in an hour). Now that it's gone remote, they're surprised at how many talented firms are an internet connection away.