I have not had good luck with most (though not all!) digital nomad types, either as contractors or remote employees. My sample size is small because they are rare, like you said. However, the few that I’ve worked with felt like they needed extraordinary management attention to extract even moderate amounts of work relative to anyone else on the team.

And of course their peers and teammates hate it the most because they’re forced to collaborate with someone in changing time zones who seems to be working hard at avoiding work.