You make some good observations and it's true that commuting overheads, US holidays and 9-5 are over the top. Many people here on HN eventually wind up with remote gigs and swear by them. I worked remote for many years too. Right now I am founding my second startup, which being hardware-focused basically requires physical presence. That said, everyone knocks off at 4PM, being foodtech-focused we do lunch together and try to maintain a collaborative environment where people can work on their own stuff but communicate frequently. It helps us all stay on one page and minimizes needless formal project management / messaging / issue-tracking muck. Probably a totally different environment to many startups or larger companies, definitely more creative, and definitely more attractive to people like yourself who reject needless formalism. It's probably largely a response to my own experience. I guess there's always a few companies like ours carrying the torch of (in)sanity: find one, or start one!