I dated an orchestral musician for a while. She was tenured and one of the best musicians in her instrument in the country. So I trust her opinion on this. I once asked her what conductors do, and that's how I learned that conductors expect "eye contact" from the musicians. The way she explained it to me, it was more about the conductor's ego than anything that she needed to her job.

Also, it turns out that the pay for classical musicians is horrendous and almost anything to do with performing arts is a terrible career choice (even before COVID).