I think not recording is fine. Here is my reasoning:
- As someone said before: there might be other videos / papers etc. already that contain effectively the same content.
- if that’s not the case, then the presenter can easily record a streamlined demo separately and upload it to Youtube.
- As @ftomassetti points out, it’s not just about the presenter, but also about the participants (and their questions) not being recorded.
So, in summary, the point of these Thursday sessions is to meet in person. Recording will substantially change that character to something that arguably already exists: recorded demos of tools.