Screen and other distractions notwithstanding, attending a conference in person is inherently more immersive for a lot of people with reduced day-to-day distractions and in-person discussions about topics. Even if videos are good people are just more likely to tune out or go off and do something else.
Maybe I’m odd, but when I watch talks recorded at conferences I take notes, pause to visit resources discussed by the speaker and skip back to things I misheard or didn’t grasp properly. Then I’ll save it for reference along with the notes and slides if made available.
In person I’m usually feeling uncomfortable to be surrounded by so many people and can’t focus on the talk in the same way.
If some tech could close this gap, all sorts of learning rates would increase.
Until then, it's a downside of being remote (perhaps balanced by many upsides for many people!)