> Everyone went to discussions, and office hours were effectively mandatory, so there was still plenty of staff interaction. In the end I don't feel like I miss much by watching lectures online.

Okay, that's a LOT of missing context.

Having a "discussion" section is unusual for most universities outside of beginner prerequisite classes. And, office hours have never been mandatory for students anywhere I have taught.

Given that, yeah, I can see that interrupting a lecturer is problematic and that watching a recording is probably okay.