I'm an open source dev myself with lots of experience in remote collab in both open source and commercial, and I agree with EricE that there are downsides — and

I'm an open source dev myself with lots of experience in remote collab in both open source and commercial, and I agree with EricE that there are downsides — and serious ones at that. However, there are benefits which are just as significant! Depending on the organization the tradeoffs can skew wildly towards choosing remote, so I essentially agree with your conclusion. I just think it's unfortunate that he's dragged culture war contempt into the discussion, as i think that has inhibited our ability to have curious conversation about the tradeoffs.