The teams that I’ve worked on have always just done everything via messages but to touch on your point, we never had check ins in the first place. People are given complete autonomy and are responsible for outcomes. With issue tracking it’s easy to see who is blocking the work but that person usually pushes themselves on without any additional input. The whole thing is rather casual.
Hmm, I haven’t really had issue. The teams that were already async seemed to have figured it out. Perhaps having a smaller team is key? I can see how larger teams may be more difficult to stay on top of.