The only way the workers can own the means of production is through public ownership by the government. When the government gets that much power, it never ends well. Plus, central planners can never keep up with the billions of price and markets signals that a free market does which leads to shortages, etc.

Workers owning the means of production directly is a utopian fantasy. How would this work exactly?

Also, what is stopping a group of enterprising individuals from creating a company right now where the workers own it and they directly control the means of production? Would the janitors get the same share as the software developers. What happens when a person moves to another company? What if some people are better at saving their money than others? Wouldn't we naturally return to some people having more than others and eventually the exact same wealth gap that we have now? Would you stop it from happening by making it illegal to save your money or live a frugal life? Would it be illegal to change jobs or would you lose your ownership when you changed jobs? Would a new employee just automatically get the same share as somebody working there for 20 years? What about a person who refuses to work at all. Would they still get a share?

Surely there are some socialists out there with some good ideas that would work as a business. Surely there are some altruistic individuals who would forego their billions and split that up evenly with the janitors and accountants.

If it was a superior way to run a businesses, wouldn't all businesses be run like that already? Why do you need the government to change something if the goal isn't to give the government central authority (I.e. Communism)?