[bipson]

Yes!

And wouldn't it be preferable if you were so connected to your coworkers that you could say that (maybe not in these exact words), and either have better meetings, or be free to leave this particular meeting?

Do you really prefer sitting for hours in anonymous meetings, working on something else, just so you were "there", but not "there"?

You could work significantly better without all that nonsense in the background, right? Maybe even discussing important things?

And idea what is holding you back?

[OkayPhysicist]

I'm not held back. I'll happily tell people, most of the time after the fact, but in some more egregious cases in the moment, that I don't belong in this meeting, or ask that we get back to the topic at hand that required me in the meeting.

You don't need to be buddy-buddy with your coworkers to tell them things that are directly relevant to our job at hand. In fact, I'm much more comfortable pointing out to my coworker that we've already talked about this subject, take it to a sidebar, than I am telling my friend that he's told the same story about his whitewater rafting trip 3 times. Because my friendships are based on enjoying each other's company, and I don't want to associate negative emotions with it. My coworkers are all here because we get paid. We get paid because we achieve goals. We achieve goals by actually doing productive work, not sitting through snooze-fest meetings.