Your working theory is spot on. Coasting is almost impossible unless you constantly keep showing that you are valuable to the company. So yeah I did 100 meetings is one easy way of quantifying your presence.

What I am really surprised at - companies have been blind to these bad managers and are letting them run the show. Just blindly fire them. Life becomes simpler for everyone, including the company.

Remote is a win-win for everyone except the bad managers. Why keep them then. Is this so hard to realise ?