How in the hell could I forget how functional international competitive gaming is?

Right - which needs audio, which needs video, which can generate all of it locally, and which must pass control signals along in 6ms or so. Compare and contrast with the games that actually require assessing the human on the other side, ie poker.

Poker is so broken without human interaction that pokerbots arose within weeks of poker going online and nobody could tell.

why in the hell are companies paying for conferencing software like WebEx, with 5x or more latency?

"There's only one product, the only thing that changes is how you sell it."

(a legit book I bought on VOiP systems)

So look. I replaced our crusty AT&T Synapse system with a 3CX system. I pay $250 a year and I can do up to 8 simultaneous calls in and out. Which is plenty because we have one phone number. It runs on a Google virtual server which costs us about $2 a month. But I had to take about 10 hours worth of classes to be trained up enough to fumble my way through, and I had to buy the software from someone who had taken about 50 hours of classes to be trained up enough to support me when I break shit.

I coulda bought Vonage or Nextiva or whatever. Rather than $1000 worth of hardware, $5 a month in VOiP fees, $2 a month in server fees and $20 a month in licensing fees, I could be paying Vonage $30 per extension per month. I currently have 17 extensions (for 8 employees! Sweet jesus!) so I'm pretty cheerfully NOT doing that. But if you need a business phone, most people hit the easy button.

Unless you have a spare MCSE sitting around keeping your shit running, in which case that asshole will save you $500 a month. Outfits with a dedicated IT guy? They don't pay Vonage.

People pay for WebEx because it's the easy button. My eight simultaneous calls also allows me to do a 100-seat videoconference. I could literally have my wife's state-level professional organizations dial into our office to run their distance learning events. Skype ain't magic.

But if you don't understand it you're more likely to overpay.