Then after the official meeting, when attendees go out to the food table in another room and the tele-attending people can't digitally follow them, I'm sure the attendees will all just not discuss anything important, right?
Or "hey, Bob, I'm glad you could use the teleoffice installation to join us today. Gosh, I wish I could have you with me tomorrow when I go across town to check out a small factory. You know so much more about that stuff than me, but unfortunately the tele-office is huge and all."
First, I think you're overestimating how easily people will adapt to having these robots around. I hope there's no stairs or elevators in between the official meeting and the food table.
Second, does this small factory have high speed wifi? In my experience, that's very rare.
You know what does work in these situations? Flying out to the meeting.
As a technologist and possible early adopter, it is really easy to see how YOU'D use something. It is far harder to put yourself in the shoes of another and judge it from their perspective.
That said, once telepresence robots are in place, they seem to be very sticky - most people don't want to give them up. [1]
A key quote from [1]: "the greatest barrier keeping telerobotics from conquering the office probably isn’t hardware or software, it’s red tape"
Or "hey, Bob, I'm glad you could use the teleoffice installation to join us today. Gosh, I wish I could have you with me tomorrow when I go across town to check out a small factory. You know so much more about that stuff than me, but unfortunately the tele-office is huge and all."