[PAR35]

Any guess as to why they were to be read in the ekklesia and not just passed from hand to hand for individual study and contemplation?

Because a big chunk of them weren't literate.

[Persevero]

That might be a good reason too. Of course we don’t know that.

The early church was largely Jewish and they had a high literacy rate.

In any event we are to physically gather. We are not Gnostics, we are corporeal, worship is not simply emotions or intangible thoughts.

While I am all for the use of alternative means as a weak substitute when there is no other choice the mandate from heaven is physical assembly for worship.