I agree with you that there's a trillion-dollar bill just laying on the ground for the first videoconferencing company which embraces the medium, instead of str

I agree with you that there's a trillion-dollar bill just laying on the ground for the first videoconferencing company which embraces the medium, instead of striving for the impossible impression that everyone is in the 'same place at the same time'. It's orthogonal to having decent gear, however. Using a flattering aperture and a sensor with adequate sensitivity, not to mention a real microphone, will create a positive impression in a mostly invisible way, and building software which isn't painful to use would magnify this effect rather than flatten it.