I think people are missing the point of the 'world tour'. It is not
just what happens inside the IETF that is important, it is the
perception of the IETF in other forums. In particular government
forums.
The politics of communication systems sit in the top tier in
international diplomacy. Only actual military conflict outranks them.
One thing that every successful politician understands is the impact
of communication infrastructures on their position.
The Clinton Gore online campaign set up a Web server in 1992. That is
before Mosaic came out. The BA location was being decided round about
the time that the Arab Spring was occurring. How quickly people
forget.
As far as travel goes, BA was less inconvenient for me than Hawaii.
And dramatically less difficult than Japan or South Korea.
But what we are up to is causing vastly more inconvenience to a lot
more people than a few long distance plane rides. The Internet isn't
just cat pictures and a mountain of porn. The Internet is the pulse of
freedom.