Panopto - the greatest invention ever? or the worst?

Watching the Panopto from Tuesday's class right now, and it has me thinking about how technology plays into distance learning. In theory, recording lectures is a fantastic idea. It allows distance learners to feel as if they were actually in class, hearing the voice of the professor, listening in on the questions of classmates, etc. You can access it on your own time, pause if you have to take a break, even multitask if you can handle it. So why in reality is it so hard for me to get into this form of learning? For some reason, I would much rather actually be in class than watch a recording of a lecture, but I can't pinpoint why. I think it possibly could have something to do with the blended nature of this method - there is an actual class happening that you weren't a part of, but you still are required to "be there" in a sense by watching the video. My WISE class was totally online (not blended) and I had a much better time with that. I knew each of my classmates were getting the same experience as me, and I enjoyed the written format of the learning modules over videos. This could be because I read pretty fast and I consider myself an expert skimmer, while watching a video is gonna take as long as it's gonna take. I know this is probably a personal preference, but I wonder how many other people feel the same way. Is it that Panoptos just don't jive with my individual learning style, or is there a more universal element at work?