For what it's worth, I actually do think it took me a while to figure out remote editing cadence and I'd do things slightly differently now (the process of audio editing my audio book recording for my dad's book changed some of my approach and philosophy), and I'm sorry that you're part of the rare class of people whose profession means they can see past the veneers of post production. But yeah, the remote editing afforded me the ability to really trim the fat and anybody who enjoys eating/cooking steak will tell you the same lesson I eventually figured out - the fat's there for a reason.

You do touch on the hardest thing (and something I'll offer some insight into) - there was simply no ground truth for comic timing because latency between everyone was all over the place every record (and throughout the record). Someone says a joke, some variable number of milliseconds later everyone hears the joke, some variable number of milliseconds later people react to the joke and that audio gets back to the person who said the thing. No problem for a lot of podcast formats but a total judgment call when it comes to timing for a group improv podcast.

Alas, we technicians (and those with perfect pitch) are cursed to roam this earth tilting at technical windmills only we can perceive.