Meetings are very important. You just need to make sure you are having the right ones if they start to seem pointless.
Ad-hoc, developer initiated meetings are the happy path. I think it is also acceptable and healthy for developers to be required to check in on some weekly call too.
Daily standups are where things start to derail for me. At some level, we need more async written communication. Forcing everyone on the call every single day can feel dystopian depending on your current tasks.
Sometimes a daily standup can be a good tool to get a dysfunctional (poorly communicating) team or project into a place where they at least have to get into the habit of communicating with each other enough to convey basic information and tasks on a daily basis.
If the team is already working fine with async communication then it's just another empty ritual that can be safely dropped.
For a remote team IMO it's good if your timezone is almost the same. It's the most suitable place to ask others about yesterday's blockers, or when you found something that you want to ask after 4pm. It's also the best place to heads up "I need your help x, lets call after (some time).
Ad-hoc, developer initiated meetings are the happy path. I think it is also acceptable and healthy for developers to be required to check in on some weekly call too.
Daily standups are where things start to derail for me. At some level, we need more async written communication. Forcing everyone on the call every single day can feel dystopian depending on your current tasks.