While I certainly agree with many of the OPs points about how to make meetings work better, I sometimes suspect that the reason a lot of people dislike meetings

While I certainly agree with many of the OPs points about how to make meetings work better, I sometimes suspect that the reason a lot of people dislike meetings is not just that they are ineffective, but rather that they feel unpleasant. Deciding something collectively with a group of three or more people really is much easier if the stakeholders are present, than over email or phone. But in a meeting you get all kinds of nasty conflicts between people, the consequent avoiding difficult but relevant issues, misunderstandings, conflicting mental models, boredom etc. Meetings don't feel nice for these reasons, but I would like to hear something that truly works better. Sure, if the proverbial Steve decides everything, then why have meetings (you only need to meet Steve once in a while), but is that really how you want things to be?