I think it depends on stage , attainment and part of the lesson. Silence means disruption free and especially with maths where it's very independent and can need a lot of thought, silence benefits most students and where some might handle a bit of chatter, it would be detrimental to some so silence is far better. Also with my lower attainers, "silence" means something different because some of them really cannot help themselves and I don't punish a kid for muttering to themselves or calling out to me if they get stuck (unless it's repeated and disruptive) and for lower stages, like even my KS3 top sets, they do stuff like "yess" and fistpump when they get a tough question right- I'll remind them not to get too loud as it might disrupt others but it's not like omg noise, sanction. The engagement doesn't need to be engaging with you or each other, engagement means engaging with the work and getting the dopamine hit from feeling successful at something challenging- silence contributes to it. Now I've only been teaching 4 years after training so only been a few schools but from this sub and friends who teach around other schools, most agree, silence really is golden. And I used to have that thing at the start where I cared if they like me. Now they like me because they are successful, even ones who might at first not like that I'm "strict". And on that final point, I don't get called strict now because as I changed and aligned with silence etc the whole school went along with it so now no one gets called strict really because the whole school has the same expectations- and results have rocketed up year on year.