I'm not sure this is the thread in which to do it, but I think this is an important thing for the "Rah Rah WFH" type folks to consider. Networking over Zoom/email/chat definitely isn't rare or impossible, but is a lot more limiting & difficult than in person.
But I can definitely see it could be tricky for introverted types, or people just starting their career.
What I want more than anything is a stronger separation between domestic and professional workspace.
It just never happened to me, I picked my jobs myself, bootstrapped my companies without promoting it in a inner circle.
In fact most people I know got their job by just applying for it or recruiting companies.
I wonder where I would be at if I had networking skills, when my coding skills already brought me everywhere I wanted to be.
Maybe it's cultural, maybe it's just my social circle.
So if any of those people reach out to me looking for connections, I'll absolutely do so because I also expect they'll return the favour when I need it. It's worked out for me before.
You don't have to invite them to your wedding. But having a brief if awkward friendly interaction and then passing on a referral for a posting or letting them know about some opportunity you may have heard of isn't "socializing", it's just a career skill.
We're all in this together. Being able to have a career that doesn't suck depends in large part on networking, not on your coding skills.