Right, look at conferences, MBA programs, etc. There are/were "remote" options but they essentially have no value, it was just a placeholder we tried. Some kinds of work can be remote of course. But learning and networking only really works in person.
It’s harder to do because we aren’t used to it but I attended a really well done Zoom mixer in 2021 that was absolutely amazing and didn’t great job. It almost felt like I was in person honestly.
People aren’t used to changing their norms so quickly. This is what the real issue is
Networking is fundamentally an in-person thing. The remote-only people can whine all they want, but that is simply an immutable fact.
Building a startup requires most of your time on non-coding tasks.