Not the OP, but I suffer from social anxiety, and the ability to socialize outside of "real life" is a huge part of what attracted me to tech as a kid. So to me, the idea of replacing data and virtual collaboration with a big noisy room sounds… well, it sounds like a nightmare, a dystopia. It actually makes my heart race a bit just thinking about it.

Of course, that doesn't mean the project is bad, just that it's profoundly unsuited to me personally. But I'm probably not the only person like that on this forum...