We shouldn't mistake "communication" with "meetings" or "talking a lot." But, communicating more through the right channels is indeed very helpful. Maybe through more documentation, maybe on Slack, maybe through weekly/monthly updates emails that one can easily ignore, if needed, or maybe through more listening.
The reason I think communication is very important is that limited or incorrect / stale information is a very big problem for medium-large organizations (the kind of organizations that have PMs). Many times, poor or lack of sufficient communication is the foundational reason for other issues that we see regarding seemingly always changing priorities, decisions being made out of nowhere, etc.
Absolutely... but the best PMs I know absolutely hate meetings, and are constantly trying to clear them off of their plates. I've actually had PMs on my team specifically petition to remove meetings and replace them with emails, Slack checkins, or (my favorite) nothing.
It's all about aligning incentives. You need to reward PMs for getting stuff done, rather than looking busy.
The reason I think communication is very important is that limited or incorrect / stale information is a very big problem for medium-large organizations (the kind of organizations that have PMs). Many times, poor or lack of sufficient communication is the foundational reason for other issues that we see regarding seemingly always changing priorities, decisions being made out of nowhere, etc.