Theoretically yes it would save time. Practically, many people wouldn't read it ("no time") or just skim it ("got the gist of it") and having a meaningful disc

Theoretically yes it would save time. Practically, many people wouldn't read it ("no time") or just skim it ("got the gist of it") and having a meaningful discussion becomes impossible. The meeting then dissolves into a impromptu brainstorming session by all the people who haven't read it. A decision is made to implement one of the newly brainstormed hare-brained ideas without taking the carefully thought out arguments and counterpoints in the memo into account. In the end people congratulate each other on a "productive" meeting and the memo wanders into the trash, unread.