This is a pretty dated viewpoint. Many distributed-team collaboration solutions have existed for years. THey are not chat-only (well, maybe the free ones are). I use {plug alert} Sococo Teamspace, which I help develop. Its always-on doc, audio, vid and yes chat sharing. Unlike some tools, you have relative privacy when you need it - you can retreat into your office. But others choose to hang out in their standup space, or in a common zone so they can just talk and their team can hear with zero friction.

Monoculture, siloing... these are completely unnecessary symptoms of a broken process. The OP's solutions are not so much solutions but exhortations to 'do something' without much advice. My advice: use something like Teamspace.