There's nothing quite like standing on a podium. You feel the energy of the audience. You communicate silently with the performers onstage. You use every bit of your physical being to communicate to the musicians arrayed around you, and you bring all of it together into a unified whole, taking the entire theater/opera house/recording studio/scoring stage on a collective journey. It's a lot of responsibility, and it's a thrill.

You are the nexus of emotional communication. You're driving the bus, and you have to get everyone on board and safely to their destination.

FWIW, I've done a few shows conducting upstage of the actors. It's no fun.  As good as the show was, Billy Elliot was a slog to conduct because the orchestra was inexplicably encased in Plexiglas. (There were other reasons it was a slog, but you'll need to take me out for a drink…) I've generally avoided click track shows. That takes the joy away from it. And admittedly, as orchestras get smaller and smaller, I have less and less desire to conduct live theatre.

But oh, the opera houses, the film scores, and the TV orchestras! These may eventually go the way of the dodo as well, but it's been a wonderful ride.