[hajimemash]

One way that in-office workers can be more valuable is more accessible and a higher quality of communication.

Being able to discuss things face-to-face gives us more and higher quality (diagramming, eye contact) communication channels, in addition to avoiding things like bad audio, bad video, etc.

There is also lower friction in haphazard discussions; someone can overhear things and chime in a thought that could turn out to be useful. Sometimes, the effort of messaging or calling someone will cause us to not bother to include someone in the conversation for a chance that they could contribute.

If different timezones are involved, then a remote worker's value is lowered due to the higher friction in addition to the round trip time for communication.