I think they are being stupid, honestly. They could play anonymously from the venue, just like some vtubers did in person 3D lives. In the worst case they could play from a Hotel/netcafe right by TwitchCon, just take the time to set it up properly. They could even have the "physical presence" of a cosplayer there with an unplugged controller just like we used to do to our little siblings to not make it weird to have only one player on stage.Definitely think all the substitutions are dampening the excitement of the Sajam Slam quite a bit. Making it in person seems to have been a recent development, at which point I think you should probably make some concessions like allowing people to take part remotely, ping be damned. This just messes with all the storylines and makes it feel rather anticlimactic.
I don't get throwing out this kind of opportunity and hype.